Starfury Quor'Toth, second half
Jul. 1st, 2005 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethQuor'Toth
Part the first
and now part the second -
Once again to reiterate – I'm writing this all out from memory and I have this lingering feeling of getting it all Horribly Wrong. Am happy to take corrections in the comments. Can't guarantee anything is accurate here.
Sunday -
Dennis Christopher and Stacey Travis
DC has done a lot of roles as serial killers. I think I remember him from The Sentinel. He was also a major character in Profiler, a show I haven't seen. I will type out what I remember of what he said about that show but I lack context so I might slip up.
Apparently there was a major change in creative staff between seasons. There was a creative conflict between an act-or (he paused carefully between the 'act' and 'or') and... well, pretty much everyone else. And the act-or won. So everyone, writing staff on up, like absolutely everyone quit. And this was a problem, he said, they'd just cut off their own head. The show was now headless.
So they got a couple of new boss people in, and these people had never seen the show before. They hadn't seen a single episode of the show. And they went around, and they chatted with all the actors. They called DC in for a chat. And after that chat, friendly introduction thing, they fired him. Because, they said, he wasn't scary enough. Well, he says, give him a script and ask him to play scary, and he will *be* scary (and there was much agreement from those segments of the audience who have seen him in serial killer mode, because he is one creepy dude when he tries). But these new ptb, they just expected him to be a scary guy in person, and when he wasn't, they fired him. And recast the role.
And the fans, oddly, had a problem with that.
Which led to the Bigger PTB having a go at the ptb and saying they had to bring DC back. The little ptb whined and said they'd already swapped him, but the BPTB were insistent. They'd made the mess, they had to fix it. They didn't care how, just fix it. So they made it so the new guy was a fake guy, and they brought back DC to be the real scary guy.
DC reckons that Hollywood casting these days really lacks imagination. They aren't looking to cast someone who can play a role. They are looking for that character to walk through the door. New York, and plays, still have some imagination. But for TV they want that person they have in their head to just walk in the door. Which is kind of a problem, because whatever performance you can put in, you can only get cast to play that particular face that you're wearing. Which is among the reasons why working under all the makeup as Vail was so cool, because he could just play.
He said he wants to teach acting, and when he teaches he will get away from all the stuff about (paraphrasing) trying to find the truth and all that deep meaningful stuff, and just tell his students to play. Because when he is playing a demon or whatever, the part of himself he is calling on is that little two year old inside just playing. Where you can shoot people and fall down dead and get up again no problem because it is all pretend. Play lets pretend. And that is the part of himself he calls on to make these really scary nasty characters.
Which is something of a relief seeing as we were spending all weekend with him ;) He was at the parties, and party with serial killer dude would be unfun, but party with actor DC is cool.
ST had something to say about that being cast as what you look like thing, and being cast as a type. It is getting so actors in their 20s are being cast as teenagers and actors in their 30s are being cast as their moms, and there is no physical way that they could possibly be the biological parents of some of the people they're cast as being. Because they're so focused on them both being hot, there is no room for people to play at their own age.
DC says there is a guy who has played his father in, um, four? Maybe more. A whole bunch of entirely seperate film and TV things. So it got to the point where DC got a script to play a guy and in the script he had a father, so he phoned up the other guy and says these casting people will be looking for another father for me. And I should remember what the father guys name is, because he was a cool actor, and the show was real happy to have him on to play the father. But they just get cast as father and son a lot, and it started as a happy sort of smiley relationship, because DC was getting a lot of clean cut happy roles to start with, but it moved on to this utterly creepy relationship, because these days DC gets cast as really creepy.
DC was in Stephen King's 'IT', which a lot of people liked a lot, and I *think* he played the older version of the character Seth Green played. Anyways, he got questions on that film. So he was asked if the younger version of his character reminded him of himself as a kid. He said no, he hadn't been like that, but they really were right for the younger versions of the character. The young actors were cast well as those particular kids, they matched well.
Then there was the standard fluffy question – chocolate or whipped cream, licker or lickee, and who?
I only remember parts of DC's answer. He ummed and ahhhed a bit, and said he had like wide ranging tastes that have got him in trouble before. But then he decided on Angelina Jolie.
There was probably more. I think they got back on politics and were even more blunt about it on Sunday. But this is what I remember.
Yeah, there's a shortage of Stacey Travis. She hasn't been in anything I particularly remember her from, so I guess I was paying less attention. Sorry.
Jenny Mollen & Vladimir Kulich
Jenny Mollen said that there was a line she had in her first episode, “I'll never tell them.”, where the director (?) told her to read it happy, and she couldn't see how in any universe that made sense. How could that be a happy? But she read it super happy just for a joke, and much to her chagrin that was the take they ended up using. So she has decided that now if she does a take where she thinks she's messed it up she will immediately break character and swear and just make that take unuseable.
Someone asked her about her music. Apparently she is getting kicked out of her current flat because she blasts her music too loud. Oops. Neighbours not really liking that. She likes loud music, her favourite band are the Pixies (who I've not heard of, so I hope I've got the name right). She has an Ipod and it is full of music.
Vladimir also has an Ipod. His was kind of a saga to get going, because he'd had it about six months before he started trying to use it, and he only wanted it for the flight over here. He's terrified of planes, so he needed something to take his mind off that. Anyway, he started trying to make it work and it just said to call service, and he had to download a whole new lot of stuff, and it was major saga. And then when he put on every song from his collection, all the music he owns that he thought he'd like, it was only like 180 songs. Tiny number of songs, nearly empty Ipod.
So Jenny, with her full Ipod, said they could transfer some. “We could have Ipod sex.”
:)
This concept much appreciated by audience.
Jenny had some artwork she had made, paintings made with origami paper and stuff, from an art show she had called “You're glad I'm not your girlfriend.” She likes doing art because even for TV a performance is sort of ephemeral, and a theatre performance is totally ephemeral, but her artwork she coats with the varnish they use on boats and it is practically indestructible. So to make paintings is to make something that expresses something emotional but that expression lasts. And she sold all the stuff in her show, except for these two paintings. She got offers for them, from Tom Lenk I think she said for one, but she told everyone no, those weren't for sale, she was going to a con in London and those were for her fans there. So there was a little auction between talks and those two paintings were sold off for well above their reserve price.
(I didn't like them. They looked kind of D grade at GCSE to me. But my taste in art is unique anyways.)
Vladimir had done some stuff, not art, but more craft stuff. There was a tree came down on his property and he chopped it up, peeled off the bark, put wheels on the sections and sold them as I think he said coffee tables. He got decent money for it too. He signed them and everything, little artwork things made with I think he said a chainsaw. He also wanted a sink made of concrete, but he didn't pour it himself, he sent the measurements off to get it made. And he wanted the rim to be thick and chunky and the bowl to be smaller than usual. Only the people doing the pouring didn't have English as a first language and somewhere along the way the instructions got a bit muddled, so he has a concrete sink now where the sink part is like coffee cup sized in the middle of this huge, huge, huge lump of concrete.
Plane phobia – he's been saying for ages that he wants to go visit Czecheslovakia again. But he is really afraid of planes. He doesn't take planes if he can at alla void it. He'll drive across the continent if he has to, so as not to fly. But then this convention came up and he was like, okay, got to take a plane. And next he is going to go visit the country he was born in. He says Prague is really beautiful. A lot of stuff has filmed there, Blade, lots of things. It is kind of small and old and really beautiful. He was really enthusiastic about it.
The story that probably goes here – about the two girlfriends and the one play.
He was ending a relationship with one woman, and starting up with another. And there was a play on starring an actor he, like, worships. So the first woman thought she could save the relationship by taking him to see this play. So she got front row seats, and he went, sat right at the front and stared a lot. Then, the second woman knew he really liked this actor, so she got him tickets. Front row seats. Again. So he went again, and sat at the front, and the actor he liked (who I should remember the name of, but names are not my strong point) sent someone round after to say “Mr (namegoeshere) is really pleased that you like the play so much you came to see it twice, would you like to come backstage and meet him?” And he was like “Yeah! Great! But shhhhhhhh about the twice part...” And when he got backstage the actor guy had this glint in his eye, that said 'busted', like he'd noticed the different ladies too.
It was funnier when it was told.
And it would be better if I was absolutely sure it belonged here...
I have a feeling I've put most of this talk in elsewhere. That is all I can remember right now.
Andy Hallett & Dayne Johnson
I think I put most of Andy's weekend worth of topics in on Saturday. He *talks*, and he never lets anything drop, and it is really difficult to remember his stories in discreet units because they don't make sense that way. Actually, I'm not convinced they ever make sense. But they do amuse, so that works out.
The two things I am sure happened today were “Prostitutes Monthly” and an unfortunate mixup about who he'd been with last night.
Someone came up to the mic with a question for Dayne. He asked “How do you stay on top of new developments in your field, do you subscribe to 'Prosthetics Monthly'?” And then Andy started sniggering, and Dayne said “You know the only words of that he heard were 'on top'”. But Andy protested, no, it was the part about “Prostitutes Monthly.”
Yup, he'd heard just a teensy tiny bit wrong. And in fact he'd thought that the guy at the mic was making the joke. So, that turned into an ongoing joke – read about it in Prostitutes Monthly.
The actual answer to the question is no, not monthly magazines, some in person courses, but mostly learning from people hired into a show who have been working elsewhere. Kind of word of mouth I guess, the experience gets passed around as the work is.
The other thing I found cringingly embarrassing, Andy misheard someone saying she had thanked him yesterday as her saying she had sung with him yesterday. And of course he was really enthusiastic about the quality of the singing. But poor fangirl at the mic hadn't even been at the party. So that was, to me, not amusing, because so much embarrassment to go around, but some people found it kind of funny.
There was much, much, much more said. But I wrote about it on the Saturday, and only elaborated on the Angel related topics. Anything else on the list y'all want to hear about in particular, ask and I'll try and remember.
Amy Acker & Sarah Thompson
This summary will go out not with a bang but a whimper, for I can remember next to nothing of this talk. Except for Amy saying she isn't used to actually talking in talks, because she usually goes on with Andy, and he tends to talk enough for both of them.
It isn't that they weren't interesting, it is that my brain was full to bursting by then, I'd been hiding under my wrap with my fingers in my ears to try and cut the input to manageable levels and I was still on overload. So I was there, I had fun, they said interesting things, but...
Oh, one single piece of information surfaces – Amy's pilot was picked up as a mid season replacement. But Amy will not be in it. Sadly her role has been recast. She has no idea what she is doing next because she only found this out last week, up until then she was expecting to start work like this week. But no, the higher ups say she goes, and now she has no job.
And when she was asked who would win in a fight between Illyria, The Beast and Glory, she said Illyria, of course.
So all the actors think their character would win that fight.
Amy left early because her baby is very little so she went home to meet baby. Which is extra sweet.
I left early because the last talk of the day was Clare Kramer, and she is at every Starfury convention, and I can't think of a single question I'd want to know the answer to that I haven't heard already. Many times. So I went to grab the hoppa back to my hotel and hope for a few hours sleep before the closing ceremony. Unfortunately I missed one hoppa by about a second and the next one turned up about a minute before the one after that so I think I could actually have stayed and got back to my hotel just as fast.
ANYways, hotel. Sleep. Thank god. But only a couple of hours of it. Then the next door room put on their music (which includes the dance remake of Poison *shudders*) and I was getting up a bit earlier than I planned. So, time for the corset, which worked out to the good. I usually wear the corset on Sunday nights for purely structural reasons – by that time I need all the help staying upright I could get.
Back to the hall for the 8pm closing ceremony. Which, naturally, started nowhere near 8pm. But I had my 'Reading Angel' book, so I was productively occupied.
This weekend was apparently Duck Emancipation Day. We had to free the ducks. The Thistle has these three plastic ducks in every bathroom, and Sean Harry said it was sad they were stuck there and couldn't party, so we should bring them all down to the hall to party. And so many people did so, and the ducks were lined up along the edge of the stage. And the tech crew found appropriate duck themed music.
Actually it is vaguely scary how much duck music the techs found, presumably at short notice.
So, while we waited, we had fun.
And then there was the closing ceremony, and much tearful thanks from everyone, and the con virgins thanking us for being so gentle and saying they'll happily be back whenever we want them, and the con veterans being cheerful and tearful at once as usual, and generally the big hug fest that closing ceremonies always are.
And then we sung Mandy.
I couldn't see the screen past someones head, and yet I could still sing along.
Angel has much to atone for.
The party was great fun, music and dance and me wiggling in a corset. Which got to be a problem on around 0230, when Andy was up on stage doing his karaoke thing (with Clare Kramer, and slightly more of the words). I was vaguely dancing, because I like some of the music he sings, and then my corset went *sproing*. See I've lost a lot of weight, so the tension is inadequate even with it laced tight as it can get, so, *sproing*. Which was okay – it was dark, everyone was looking at the stage, I could fix it. But then Andy got down off the stage and headed into the audience with the mic – right towards me.
Oh Dear.
I got clicked back together with no further drama. And my outfit for the night involved a top over the corset, so it was never indecent, just undignified, with my hands all everywhere trying to get the things back in their holes. But that was one of those Funny Story Moments where you rather wish you could skip to the look back and laugh stage right then and there...
Outfit was corset, black wet look top with a silver star in the chest, black shiny crinkly long skirt. Also earlier a black sequin waistcoat. And my 'midnight mistress' velvet coat with the floppy cuffs. I've realised that if I flop the cuffs forward I can shake hands and yet not actually touch people. Which might sound antisocial, but I have this embarrassingly stereotypical hand washing Thing that is easier to avoid than to stop, so it is actually a cool trick to learn.
Actually, this weekend was really short on strange Things. I didn't have to do the hand washing thing. People hugged me and I let them. People even came up behind me and sort of draped themselves round me in a big hug and I didn't hit them or even have to object. It was actually kind of cool.
*grins like lunatic*
Yes, for normal people this is nothing worth celebrating. For me, this is actually a major happy dance.
So anyways, the party was meant to end at 0200 but thanks to Andy kept on until 0300, when most people packed up and left.
Apparently there was Drama and someone getting banned from the convention earlier. I think I got out the way of his hasty exit, but I try to ignore Drama.
When the music stopped I relocated to the bar, closed by then but still full of people. And then I talked until 0500.
I *talked*.
I, who have stuttered so badly in the past I gave serious thought to carrying flashcards to accomplish my daily shopping needs, just sort of sat around and chatted. For *hours*. With people I only meet at conventions. And okay, it takes me until Sunday night to get the hang of talking usually, but there was much talking once I started. And I'm pretty sure I didn't stutter even once.
Mostly talked about the new Doctor Who, compared to the old stuff. With detours through Sharpe, Buffy, and crossovers of all three. Oh, and Queer as Folk and how Vince has to turn up at least once.
I had a fun conversation with actual physically present people! Wheeee! Fun!
So, anyway. Yeah, I'm strange. But having a very good time.
Part the first
and now part the second -
Once again to reiterate – I'm writing this all out from memory and I have this lingering feeling of getting it all Horribly Wrong. Am happy to take corrections in the comments. Can't guarantee anything is accurate here.
Sunday -
Dennis Christopher and Stacey Travis
DC has done a lot of roles as serial killers. I think I remember him from The Sentinel. He was also a major character in Profiler, a show I haven't seen. I will type out what I remember of what he said about that show but I lack context so I might slip up.
Apparently there was a major change in creative staff between seasons. There was a creative conflict between an act-or (he paused carefully between the 'act' and 'or') and... well, pretty much everyone else. And the act-or won. So everyone, writing staff on up, like absolutely everyone quit. And this was a problem, he said, they'd just cut off their own head. The show was now headless.
So they got a couple of new boss people in, and these people had never seen the show before. They hadn't seen a single episode of the show. And they went around, and they chatted with all the actors. They called DC in for a chat. And after that chat, friendly introduction thing, they fired him. Because, they said, he wasn't scary enough. Well, he says, give him a script and ask him to play scary, and he will *be* scary (and there was much agreement from those segments of the audience who have seen him in serial killer mode, because he is one creepy dude when he tries). But these new ptb, they just expected him to be a scary guy in person, and when he wasn't, they fired him. And recast the role.
And the fans, oddly, had a problem with that.
Which led to the Bigger PTB having a go at the ptb and saying they had to bring DC back. The little ptb whined and said they'd already swapped him, but the BPTB were insistent. They'd made the mess, they had to fix it. They didn't care how, just fix it. So they made it so the new guy was a fake guy, and they brought back DC to be the real scary guy.
DC reckons that Hollywood casting these days really lacks imagination. They aren't looking to cast someone who can play a role. They are looking for that character to walk through the door. New York, and plays, still have some imagination. But for TV they want that person they have in their head to just walk in the door. Which is kind of a problem, because whatever performance you can put in, you can only get cast to play that particular face that you're wearing. Which is among the reasons why working under all the makeup as Vail was so cool, because he could just play.
He said he wants to teach acting, and when he teaches he will get away from all the stuff about (paraphrasing) trying to find the truth and all that deep meaningful stuff, and just tell his students to play. Because when he is playing a demon or whatever, the part of himself he is calling on is that little two year old inside just playing. Where you can shoot people and fall down dead and get up again no problem because it is all pretend. Play lets pretend. And that is the part of himself he calls on to make these really scary nasty characters.
Which is something of a relief seeing as we were spending all weekend with him ;) He was at the parties, and party with serial killer dude would be unfun, but party with actor DC is cool.
ST had something to say about that being cast as what you look like thing, and being cast as a type. It is getting so actors in their 20s are being cast as teenagers and actors in their 30s are being cast as their moms, and there is no physical way that they could possibly be the biological parents of some of the people they're cast as being. Because they're so focused on them both being hot, there is no room for people to play at their own age.
DC says there is a guy who has played his father in, um, four? Maybe more. A whole bunch of entirely seperate film and TV things. So it got to the point where DC got a script to play a guy and in the script he had a father, so he phoned up the other guy and says these casting people will be looking for another father for me. And I should remember what the father guys name is, because he was a cool actor, and the show was real happy to have him on to play the father. But they just get cast as father and son a lot, and it started as a happy sort of smiley relationship, because DC was getting a lot of clean cut happy roles to start with, but it moved on to this utterly creepy relationship, because these days DC gets cast as really creepy.
DC was in Stephen King's 'IT', which a lot of people liked a lot, and I *think* he played the older version of the character Seth Green played. Anyways, he got questions on that film. So he was asked if the younger version of his character reminded him of himself as a kid. He said no, he hadn't been like that, but they really were right for the younger versions of the character. The young actors were cast well as those particular kids, they matched well.
Then there was the standard fluffy question – chocolate or whipped cream, licker or lickee, and who?
I only remember parts of DC's answer. He ummed and ahhhed a bit, and said he had like wide ranging tastes that have got him in trouble before. But then he decided on Angelina Jolie.
There was probably more. I think they got back on politics and were even more blunt about it on Sunday. But this is what I remember.
Yeah, there's a shortage of Stacey Travis. She hasn't been in anything I particularly remember her from, so I guess I was paying less attention. Sorry.
Jenny Mollen & Vladimir Kulich
Jenny Mollen said that there was a line she had in her first episode, “I'll never tell them.”, where the director (?) told her to read it happy, and she couldn't see how in any universe that made sense. How could that be a happy? But she read it super happy just for a joke, and much to her chagrin that was the take they ended up using. So she has decided that now if she does a take where she thinks she's messed it up she will immediately break character and swear and just make that take unuseable.
Someone asked her about her music. Apparently she is getting kicked out of her current flat because she blasts her music too loud. Oops. Neighbours not really liking that. She likes loud music, her favourite band are the Pixies (who I've not heard of, so I hope I've got the name right). She has an Ipod and it is full of music.
Vladimir also has an Ipod. His was kind of a saga to get going, because he'd had it about six months before he started trying to use it, and he only wanted it for the flight over here. He's terrified of planes, so he needed something to take his mind off that. Anyway, he started trying to make it work and it just said to call service, and he had to download a whole new lot of stuff, and it was major saga. And then when he put on every song from his collection, all the music he owns that he thought he'd like, it was only like 180 songs. Tiny number of songs, nearly empty Ipod.
So Jenny, with her full Ipod, said they could transfer some. “We could have Ipod sex.”
:)
This concept much appreciated by audience.
Jenny had some artwork she had made, paintings made with origami paper and stuff, from an art show she had called “You're glad I'm not your girlfriend.” She likes doing art because even for TV a performance is sort of ephemeral, and a theatre performance is totally ephemeral, but her artwork she coats with the varnish they use on boats and it is practically indestructible. So to make paintings is to make something that expresses something emotional but that expression lasts. And she sold all the stuff in her show, except for these two paintings. She got offers for them, from Tom Lenk I think she said for one, but she told everyone no, those weren't for sale, she was going to a con in London and those were for her fans there. So there was a little auction between talks and those two paintings were sold off for well above their reserve price.
(I didn't like them. They looked kind of D grade at GCSE to me. But my taste in art is unique anyways.)
Vladimir had done some stuff, not art, but more craft stuff. There was a tree came down on his property and he chopped it up, peeled off the bark, put wheels on the sections and sold them as I think he said coffee tables. He got decent money for it too. He signed them and everything, little artwork things made with I think he said a chainsaw. He also wanted a sink made of concrete, but he didn't pour it himself, he sent the measurements off to get it made. And he wanted the rim to be thick and chunky and the bowl to be smaller than usual. Only the people doing the pouring didn't have English as a first language and somewhere along the way the instructions got a bit muddled, so he has a concrete sink now where the sink part is like coffee cup sized in the middle of this huge, huge, huge lump of concrete.
Plane phobia – he's been saying for ages that he wants to go visit Czecheslovakia again. But he is really afraid of planes. He doesn't take planes if he can at alla void it. He'll drive across the continent if he has to, so as not to fly. But then this convention came up and he was like, okay, got to take a plane. And next he is going to go visit the country he was born in. He says Prague is really beautiful. A lot of stuff has filmed there, Blade, lots of things. It is kind of small and old and really beautiful. He was really enthusiastic about it.
The story that probably goes here – about the two girlfriends and the one play.
He was ending a relationship with one woman, and starting up with another. And there was a play on starring an actor he, like, worships. So the first woman thought she could save the relationship by taking him to see this play. So she got front row seats, and he went, sat right at the front and stared a lot. Then, the second woman knew he really liked this actor, so she got him tickets. Front row seats. Again. So he went again, and sat at the front, and the actor he liked (who I should remember the name of, but names are not my strong point) sent someone round after to say “Mr (namegoeshere) is really pleased that you like the play so much you came to see it twice, would you like to come backstage and meet him?” And he was like “Yeah! Great! But shhhhhhhh about the twice part...” And when he got backstage the actor guy had this glint in his eye, that said 'busted', like he'd noticed the different ladies too.
It was funnier when it was told.
And it would be better if I was absolutely sure it belonged here...
I have a feeling I've put most of this talk in elsewhere. That is all I can remember right now.
Andy Hallett & Dayne Johnson
I think I put most of Andy's weekend worth of topics in on Saturday. He *talks*, and he never lets anything drop, and it is really difficult to remember his stories in discreet units because they don't make sense that way. Actually, I'm not convinced they ever make sense. But they do amuse, so that works out.
The two things I am sure happened today were “Prostitutes Monthly” and an unfortunate mixup about who he'd been with last night.
Someone came up to the mic with a question for Dayne. He asked “How do you stay on top of new developments in your field, do you subscribe to 'Prosthetics Monthly'?” And then Andy started sniggering, and Dayne said “You know the only words of that he heard were 'on top'”. But Andy protested, no, it was the part about “Prostitutes Monthly.”
Yup, he'd heard just a teensy tiny bit wrong. And in fact he'd thought that the guy at the mic was making the joke. So, that turned into an ongoing joke – read about it in Prostitutes Monthly.
The actual answer to the question is no, not monthly magazines, some in person courses, but mostly learning from people hired into a show who have been working elsewhere. Kind of word of mouth I guess, the experience gets passed around as the work is.
The other thing I found cringingly embarrassing, Andy misheard someone saying she had thanked him yesterday as her saying she had sung with him yesterday. And of course he was really enthusiastic about the quality of the singing. But poor fangirl at the mic hadn't even been at the party. So that was, to me, not amusing, because so much embarrassment to go around, but some people found it kind of funny.
There was much, much, much more said. But I wrote about it on the Saturday, and only elaborated on the Angel related topics. Anything else on the list y'all want to hear about in particular, ask and I'll try and remember.
Amy Acker & Sarah Thompson
This summary will go out not with a bang but a whimper, for I can remember next to nothing of this talk. Except for Amy saying she isn't used to actually talking in talks, because she usually goes on with Andy, and he tends to talk enough for both of them.
It isn't that they weren't interesting, it is that my brain was full to bursting by then, I'd been hiding under my wrap with my fingers in my ears to try and cut the input to manageable levels and I was still on overload. So I was there, I had fun, they said interesting things, but...
Oh, one single piece of information surfaces – Amy's pilot was picked up as a mid season replacement. But Amy will not be in it. Sadly her role has been recast. She has no idea what she is doing next because she only found this out last week, up until then she was expecting to start work like this week. But no, the higher ups say she goes, and now she has no job.
And when she was asked who would win in a fight between Illyria, The Beast and Glory, she said Illyria, of course.
So all the actors think their character would win that fight.
Amy left early because her baby is very little so she went home to meet baby. Which is extra sweet.
I left early because the last talk of the day was Clare Kramer, and she is at every Starfury convention, and I can't think of a single question I'd want to know the answer to that I haven't heard already. Many times. So I went to grab the hoppa back to my hotel and hope for a few hours sleep before the closing ceremony. Unfortunately I missed one hoppa by about a second and the next one turned up about a minute before the one after that so I think I could actually have stayed and got back to my hotel just as fast.
ANYways, hotel. Sleep. Thank god. But only a couple of hours of it. Then the next door room put on their music (which includes the dance remake of Poison *shudders*) and I was getting up a bit earlier than I planned. So, time for the corset, which worked out to the good. I usually wear the corset on Sunday nights for purely structural reasons – by that time I need all the help staying upright I could get.
Back to the hall for the 8pm closing ceremony. Which, naturally, started nowhere near 8pm. But I had my 'Reading Angel' book, so I was productively occupied.
This weekend was apparently Duck Emancipation Day. We had to free the ducks. The Thistle has these three plastic ducks in every bathroom, and Sean Harry said it was sad they were stuck there and couldn't party, so we should bring them all down to the hall to party. And so many people did so, and the ducks were lined up along the edge of the stage. And the tech crew found appropriate duck themed music.
Actually it is vaguely scary how much duck music the techs found, presumably at short notice.
So, while we waited, we had fun.
And then there was the closing ceremony, and much tearful thanks from everyone, and the con virgins thanking us for being so gentle and saying they'll happily be back whenever we want them, and the con veterans being cheerful and tearful at once as usual, and generally the big hug fest that closing ceremonies always are.
And then we sung Mandy.
I couldn't see the screen past someones head, and yet I could still sing along.
Angel has much to atone for.
The party was great fun, music and dance and me wiggling in a corset. Which got to be a problem on around 0230, when Andy was up on stage doing his karaoke thing (with Clare Kramer, and slightly more of the words). I was vaguely dancing, because I like some of the music he sings, and then my corset went *sproing*. See I've lost a lot of weight, so the tension is inadequate even with it laced tight as it can get, so, *sproing*. Which was okay – it was dark, everyone was looking at the stage, I could fix it. But then Andy got down off the stage and headed into the audience with the mic – right towards me.
Oh Dear.
I got clicked back together with no further drama. And my outfit for the night involved a top over the corset, so it was never indecent, just undignified, with my hands all everywhere trying to get the things back in their holes. But that was one of those Funny Story Moments where you rather wish you could skip to the look back and laugh stage right then and there...
Outfit was corset, black wet look top with a silver star in the chest, black shiny crinkly long skirt. Also earlier a black sequin waistcoat. And my 'midnight mistress' velvet coat with the floppy cuffs. I've realised that if I flop the cuffs forward I can shake hands and yet not actually touch people. Which might sound antisocial, but I have this embarrassingly stereotypical hand washing Thing that is easier to avoid than to stop, so it is actually a cool trick to learn.
Actually, this weekend was really short on strange Things. I didn't have to do the hand washing thing. People hugged me and I let them. People even came up behind me and sort of draped themselves round me in a big hug and I didn't hit them or even have to object. It was actually kind of cool.
*grins like lunatic*
Yes, for normal people this is nothing worth celebrating. For me, this is actually a major happy dance.
So anyways, the party was meant to end at 0200 but thanks to Andy kept on until 0300, when most people packed up and left.
Apparently there was Drama and someone getting banned from the convention earlier. I think I got out the way of his hasty exit, but I try to ignore Drama.
When the music stopped I relocated to the bar, closed by then but still full of people. And then I talked until 0500.
I *talked*.
I, who have stuttered so badly in the past I gave serious thought to carrying flashcards to accomplish my daily shopping needs, just sort of sat around and chatted. For *hours*. With people I only meet at conventions. And okay, it takes me until Sunday night to get the hang of talking usually, but there was much talking once I started. And I'm pretty sure I didn't stutter even once.
Mostly talked about the new Doctor Who, compared to the old stuff. With detours through Sharpe, Buffy, and crossovers of all three. Oh, and Queer as Folk and how Vince has to turn up at least once.
I had a fun conversation with actual physically present people! Wheeee! Fun!
So, anyway. Yeah, I'm strange. But having a very good time.
