[chicon] heterosexuality was never an option
First of all, Chicago traffic is THE WORST traffic I have ever been in, and this includes LA traffic. It took me nearly 3 hours to get 30 miles. Of course it was 5 pm on a Friday afternoon but still. Ridiculous. And then when I left (at 5 am on a Monday!) it was still pretty bad for as early as it was. Sigh. This is why I could never be a big city girl.
So, ChiCon was cool. As usual. I arrived late Friday afternoon, so I didn't see anyone speak on Friday at all. Met up with build_the_moon for the first time, which was fun, though we didn't actually spend too much time together, too busy doing ALL THE THINGS, but it's always cool to meet online folks in real life. Spent most of my time Kelly and Kate, though, which is what I planned. I think it was probably my last Chicon, though. Nothing will top last year, and Nashcon is cheaper and closer to me. So yeah. Last hurrah.
As you have seen here and there via awesomely stealthy people (like seriously, I roomed with volunteers, I know how strict they are about recording video. People are NINJAS) there was plenty of totally PG fun. LOLOLOL. I think the only panel that was legit PG was Jared and Jensen's. But yeah. Sebastian and Mark are the bestest. As long as you're not an 11 year old child.
I had a wonderful seat in the second row of Silver, on the aisle, even. I see now why people pay so much money for reserved seats. I unfortunately do not have a good camera, but eh, I prefer to watch than take pics anyway. I did get a few when everyone wondered up and down the aisle, though.
All photos are taken with my iPhone, so the quality is what it is. And is still better than my actual camera.
Karaoke was insane, starting with the fact that Jared stuck around after Brian's show for longer than he was supposed to and was pretty smashed. I know there's vid of he and Matt's gunshow-off which hnnnnng. Plus there was everyone crowdsurfing face down, Guy Bee singing Dirty Deeds quite fabulously, and then there was Mark Pelligrino singing Big Balls, which is the second and third pictures. Definitely the most surprising events of the weekend all came courtesy of Mark.
Matt and Richard are so much fun because they walk around the crowd. And especially fun if you have an aisle seat right where they choose to stand for a majority of their time. Their whole panel was also very innuendo-laced, the highlight probably definitely being Brokeback Mountain 2: This Shit's Gonna Hurt, starring Jared and Jensen, which I believe is being discussed in this picture:
Matt doing his impersonation of Jensen. Of course he had to stop laughing and regain composer to pucker up his lips, something he had a bit of trouble doing while Richard was speaking, I can't imagine why.
And then of course he had to do his impression of Jared, as well.
A wild Misha also appeared in the middle of Matt and Richard talking. He didn't stay long, though because he had to be somewhere else.
Mark petting the pretty service doggie.
Misha. He didn't stay in the aisles long and I don't blame him, people were like yelling at him as he walked by. Y so rude, fans?
Jared and Jensen!
Since As I'm looking around on the SuperWiki, there aren't very many videos linked, and I know agt_spooky didn't record her usual awesome vids because her seat was a couple rows behind mine (I kept looking over wondering if she was recording and hoping she was!), I will try and give a brief panel summary of what I remember of J2 since, let's face it, they will always be the main event.
--> One of the first questions was their views on religion, and Jared's answer was a beautiful thing that I hope there's an exact quote of somewhere, that basically spirituality is what matters, not necessarily a particular religion, which is similar to my own thoughts. When he was finished speaking, Jensen turned to him and said "I think that's the most intelligent thing I have ever heard you say."
--> A pretty girl getting married in 19 days asked them for some marriage advice. Jensen's was something along the lines of like, always remember the woman is right or whatever, and then Jared gave another thoughtful answer in "People fight, you have disagreements but basically, remember why you got married." /hearts for eyes
--> Someone asked Jared how many horses he and Gen have. And while I knew Gen still rode, I didn't realize they owned horses. HE HAS HORSES. Or well, a horse, a paint horse, that they're trying to sell now because he "doesn't want Gen riding while pregnant - not that she listens to me." Which was cute. IDK why they're selling instead of just...not riding, but if they're stabling it somewhere I suppose it's probably cheaper to sell. But JARED OWNS A HORSE. Be still my heart.
--> Downfalls of being on network TV: Jensen isn't huge on swearing, but Dean would probably swear like a sailor, and he still cringes when Dean has to say 'freaking.' Also they aren't allowed to aim guns at anyone's heads.
--> Jensen also talked about the filming in Vancouver weather and how during Bugs, Jared/Sam was wearing Pumas and he was like, "having worked in Vancouver before" he knew the sneakers wouldn't last in the heavy rain, and sure enough, Jared/Sam switched to wearing boots. And also how they used umbrellas in that episode and then Kripke decided that a couple of demon hunters were too manly to ever use an umbrella and banned them from the show from then on.
--> As far as nicknames. (fanfic writers PLEASE TAKE NOTE i am so tired of seeing'Jen') both Jared and Jensen call each other "Jay" and when someone calls for "Jay" they do a lot of times end up getting both of them. Jared is called "J-Rod" a lot on set, and Jensen is "Jackles."
--> I do believe there's video of Jensen auctioning off the salt, but his story was probably one of the most moving moments I've ever witnessed because, let's face it, the man is not a public person, but to stand there and tell us all an incredibly personal story was pretty incredible. And not just a quick summary, he wanted to share a picture of Levi so badly that he hopped off the stage and walked into the sea of fangirls to try to get the camera to display his phone picture. I was pretty moved.
-->Uhhh I can't remember anything else but if I do I'll add it in.
As far as photo ops, as usual I went in expecting to get none and came out with...3 - Rick Worthy, Sebastian, and J2. I didn't need that money anyway. vehiclesshockme and I decided to get one with Rick because of how fun and amusing (read: FUCKING TRASHED) he was at karaoke. I actually wasn't even there on Friday to see his panel, lol. We couldn't come up with anything so we just smiled. She hasn't scanned it in yet, but it's a good picture.
Kate and I got Sebastian because well...SEBASTIAN. She was like, "We want to do something fun." And he's all "JAMES BOND." How this amounts to Bond I do not know. But ta-da. We actually had two photos with him because Kate blinked the first time, so Chris called us back and I got to touch him again!!! His face is actually more precious in the first one, imo, but I am more fond of the second. Alas, it hasn't been scanned yet, so have the crappy picture of a picture version.
Outtake
Do-over
And then. AND THEN I was silly and spent money. K. already had a J2 photo but I was like I REALLY WANT ONNNNE and she enabled and was all WE CAN SPLIT ONEEE and this is what happened. She also had a Richard M&G which, the schedule said conflicted with photo ops (it didn't actually, schedule error), so we got to go pretty early in the line. Meep. And she made ME do the talking for our pose. Before us was the girl with her service dog, and of course they were all 'puppy!' and River (I THINK That's the dog's name?) is like the calmest dog ever and just layed down when they wanted him to sit, and then he didn't want to leave once the photo was taken. So adorable.
But yeah. The idea was to ask Jared to fake stretch for us, and we'd all be holding his leg up looking bored, but I couldn't manage to ask him to lift his leg up. Kinda...awkward, you know. So instead we got this. I feel like I look disgusted at JENSEN which, as you know, is totally not the case. He and I are TIRED OF JARED'S SHIT is all. :P Katie, meanwhile, is grinning like a loon.
I was too focused on saying our pose and not sounding like an idiot to like...soak in the details, but I do know Jensen grabbed me first and pulled me in and then my brain clicked on that I was standing on this side because I wanted to TOUCHH HIMMMM so I barely remembered to put an arm around him before Chris snapped the pic. But like, Jensen's hand was on my shoulderrrr. It felt nice.
As far as autographs go, I've decided I'm not a huge fan. There's something about them that makes me more uncomfortable than photo ops, because in a photo, you're both doing something, while in the auto you're just...standing there while they do something for you. IDK, with Matt, Misha, and Richard, I just felt really awkward. Plus I just think...they must get bored signing pictures of their faces preeetty quickly. So I had the three of them sign a picture of Jared and Jensen in the Impala. L O L. None of them would deface the pic, though. Misha was like "nah, I won't draw on the Impala, but I'll mark out Jared and Jensen's faces." Matt just drew me his little heart, and Richard drew his silly caricature face that he does. /is too lazy to scan.
I had originally bought the pic of the boys in the Impala for them to sign, but then had the brilliant idea of having them sign my phone case instead. Which provided some inconvenience as far as insisting I wasn't taking stealthy pictures, but was oh so totally worth it, because it provided me the opportunity to have actual conversation instead of just stand there awkwardly while they signed yet another picture of their face.
Jared and Jensen were on opposite sides of the theater, which was so inconvenient for me. I can totally handle Jensen when Jared is there but by himself, I am still a flailing idiot. But I managed. He took a minute to figure out what he was looking at, because it is a little hard to read at first, and then said, "This is cool! Did you make it?" And of course I had to be like, "noo, I got it online from this store for like $15" word vomit. And then he asked me if it was okay to sign on the black, which really I wanted them both to sign up top because the black is where I touch ALL THE TIME, and unfortunately it smeared pretty easily when I tested it. But I just COULD NOT bring myself to say no to Jensen's face as he looked up at me, so I said "wherever is fine!." So alas, I will not use this case anymore. And then he looked up and handed it to me and I somehow managed to very calmly say a cheerful THANK YOU! as he smiled at me.
As a side note, a girl in front of me had a guitar she was having signed and he was like "should I play something" and strummed it and...well...it sounded pretty horrible to me, and Jensen thought so too. HIS FAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE. It was the most adorable thing. He cringed and crinkled his nose and was like, "Maybe I'll just sign it."
Jared is of course, a giant child, and was like "Oh wow, this is cool!" And then of course asked, "Did you make it?" And I said no, and then managed to say (because I can for some reason act like a normal person around Jared now) "I am so not that cool." AND HE LAUGHED. I MADE JARED LAUGH. (totally normal person.) And then there was smiling and thank yous and one of my roommates was sitting next to him and said "thank you Carleen" and my brain went "I wonder if he'll remember my name." The impression I got from her is that they remember far more fans than everyone thinks they do, and I've already been impressed by how familiar they are with some of the fans. (And also a little creeped out, ngl. WHERE DO YOU COME UP WITH THIS MONEY, PEOPLE? M&G ARE NOT CHEAP!)
So that's that. I did have lots of fun, as one does at a convention, but like I said, I think nothing will ever top surprise!Jensen and J2M panel from last year, so I'm probably done with ChiCon. This was my fifth convention and at some point I've got to say 'okay enough,' you know? So yeah. Two conventions a year is far too much, Nashcon is much closer and much cheaper, and at some point I'd like to make it to Vancouver. Though the idea of flying there terrifies me, let alone the idea of being able to afford it.
Alas, until Nashcon.
So, ChiCon was cool. As usual. I arrived late Friday afternoon, so I didn't see anyone speak on Friday at all. Met up with build_the_moon for the first time, which was fun, though we didn't actually spend too much time together, too busy doing ALL THE THINGS, but it's always cool to meet online folks in real life. Spent most of my time Kelly and Kate, though, which is what I planned. I think it was probably my last Chicon, though. Nothing will top last year, and Nashcon is cheaper and closer to me. So yeah. Last hurrah.
As you have seen here and there via awesomely stealthy people (like seriously, I roomed with volunteers, I know how strict they are about recording video. People are NINJAS) there was plenty of totally PG fun. LOLOLOL. I think the only panel that was legit PG was Jared and Jensen's. But yeah. Sebastian and Mark are the bestest. As long as you're not an 11 year old child.
I had a wonderful seat in the second row of Silver, on the aisle, even. I see now why people pay so much money for reserved seats. I unfortunately do not have a good camera, but eh, I prefer to watch than take pics anyway. I did get a few when everyone wondered up and down the aisle, though.
All photos are taken with my iPhone, so the quality is what it is. And is still better than my actual camera.
Karaoke was insane, starting with the fact that Jared stuck around after Brian's show for longer than he was supposed to and was pretty smashed. I know there's vid of he and Matt's gunshow-off which hnnnnng. Plus there was everyone crowdsurfing face down, Guy Bee singing Dirty Deeds quite fabulously, and then there was Mark Pelligrino singing Big Balls, which is the second and third pictures. Definitely the most surprising events of the weekend all came courtesy of Mark.
Matt and Richard are so much fun because they walk around the crowd. And especially fun if you have an aisle seat right where they choose to stand for a majority of their time. Their whole panel was also very innuendo-laced, the highlight probably definitely being Brokeback Mountain 2: This Shit's Gonna Hurt, starring Jared and Jensen, which I believe is being discussed in this picture:
Matt doing his impersonation of Jensen. Of course he had to stop laughing and regain composer to pucker up his lips, something he had a bit of trouble doing while Richard was speaking, I can't imagine why.
And then of course he had to do his impression of Jared, as well.
A wild Misha also appeared in the middle of Matt and Richard talking. He didn't stay long, though because he had to be somewhere else.
Mark petting the pretty service doggie.
Misha. He didn't stay in the aisles long and I don't blame him, people were like yelling at him as he walked by. Y so rude, fans?
Jared and Jensen!
Since As I'm looking around on the SuperWiki, there aren't very many videos linked, and I know agt_spooky didn't record her usual awesome vids because her seat was a couple rows behind mine (I kept looking over wondering if she was recording and hoping she was!), I will try and give a brief panel summary of what I remember of J2 since, let's face it, they will always be the main event.
--> One of the first questions was their views on religion, and Jared's answer was a beautiful thing that I hope there's an exact quote of somewhere, that basically spirituality is what matters, not necessarily a particular religion, which is similar to my own thoughts. When he was finished speaking, Jensen turned to him and said "I think that's the most intelligent thing I have ever heard you say."
--> A pretty girl getting married in 19 days asked them for some marriage advice. Jensen's was something along the lines of like, always remember the woman is right or whatever, and then Jared gave another thoughtful answer in "People fight, you have disagreements but basically, remember why you got married." /hearts for eyes
--> Someone asked Jared how many horses he and Gen have. And while I knew Gen still rode, I didn't realize they owned horses. HE HAS HORSES. Or well, a horse, a paint horse, that they're trying to sell now because he "doesn't want Gen riding while pregnant - not that she listens to me." Which was cute. IDK why they're selling instead of just...not riding, but if they're stabling it somewhere I suppose it's probably cheaper to sell. But JARED OWNS A HORSE. Be still my heart.
--> Downfalls of being on network TV: Jensen isn't huge on swearing, but Dean would probably swear like a sailor, and he still cringes when Dean has to say 'freaking.' Also they aren't allowed to aim guns at anyone's heads.
--> Jensen also talked about the filming in Vancouver weather and how during Bugs, Jared/Sam was wearing Pumas and he was like, "having worked in Vancouver before" he knew the sneakers wouldn't last in the heavy rain, and sure enough, Jared/Sam switched to wearing boots. And also how they used umbrellas in that episode and then Kripke decided that a couple of demon hunters were too manly to ever use an umbrella and banned them from the show from then on.
--> As far as nicknames. (fanfic writers PLEASE TAKE NOTE i am so tired of seeing'Jen') both Jared and Jensen call each other "Jay" and when someone calls for "Jay" they do a lot of times end up getting both of them. Jared is called "J-Rod" a lot on set, and Jensen is "Jackles."
--> I do believe there's video of Jensen auctioning off the salt, but his story was probably one of the most moving moments I've ever witnessed because, let's face it, the man is not a public person, but to stand there and tell us all an incredibly personal story was pretty incredible. And not just a quick summary, he wanted to share a picture of Levi so badly that he hopped off the stage and walked into the sea of fangirls to try to get the camera to display his phone picture. I was pretty moved.
-->Uhhh I can't remember anything else but if I do I'll add it in.
As far as photo ops, as usual I went in expecting to get none and came out with...3 - Rick Worthy, Sebastian, and J2. I didn't need that money anyway. vehiclesshockme and I decided to get one with Rick because of how fun and amusing (read: FUCKING TRASHED) he was at karaoke. I actually wasn't even there on Friday to see his panel, lol. We couldn't come up with anything so we just smiled. She hasn't scanned it in yet, but it's a good picture.
Kate and I got Sebastian because well...SEBASTIAN. She was like, "We want to do something fun." And he's all "JAMES BOND." How this amounts to Bond I do not know. But ta-da. We actually had two photos with him because Kate blinked the first time, so Chris called us back and I got to touch him again!!! His face is actually more precious in the first one, imo, but I am more fond of the second. Alas, it hasn't been scanned yet, so have the crappy picture of a picture version.
Outtake
Do-over
And then. AND THEN I was silly and spent money. K. already had a J2 photo but I was like I REALLY WANT ONNNNE and she enabled and was all WE CAN SPLIT ONEEE and this is what happened. She also had a Richard M&G which, the schedule said conflicted with photo ops (it didn't actually, schedule error), so we got to go pretty early in the line. Meep. And she made ME do the talking for our pose. Before us was the girl with her service dog, and of course they were all 'puppy!' and River (I THINK That's the dog's name?) is like the calmest dog ever and just layed down when they wanted him to sit, and then he didn't want to leave once the photo was taken. So adorable.
But yeah. The idea was to ask Jared to fake stretch for us, and we'd all be holding his leg up looking bored, but I couldn't manage to ask him to lift his leg up. Kinda...awkward, you know. So instead we got this. I feel like I look disgusted at JENSEN which, as you know, is totally not the case. He and I are TIRED OF JARED'S SHIT is all. :P Katie, meanwhile, is grinning like a loon.
I was too focused on saying our pose and not sounding like an idiot to like...soak in the details, but I do know Jensen grabbed me first and pulled me in and then my brain clicked on that I was standing on this side because I wanted to TOUCHH HIMMMM so I barely remembered to put an arm around him before Chris snapped the pic. But like, Jensen's hand was on my shoulderrrr. It felt nice.
As far as autographs go, I've decided I'm not a huge fan. There's something about them that makes me more uncomfortable than photo ops, because in a photo, you're both doing something, while in the auto you're just...standing there while they do something for you. IDK, with Matt, Misha, and Richard, I just felt really awkward. Plus I just think...they must get bored signing pictures of their faces preeetty quickly. So I had the three of them sign a picture of Jared and Jensen in the Impala. L O L. None of them would deface the pic, though. Misha was like "nah, I won't draw on the Impala, but I'll mark out Jared and Jensen's faces." Matt just drew me his little heart, and Richard drew his silly caricature face that he does. /is too lazy to scan.
I had originally bought the pic of the boys in the Impala for them to sign, but then had the brilliant idea of having them sign my phone case instead. Which provided some inconvenience as far as insisting I wasn't taking stealthy pictures, but was oh so totally worth it, because it provided me the opportunity to have actual conversation instead of just stand there awkwardly while they signed yet another picture of their face.
Jared and Jensen were on opposite sides of the theater, which was so inconvenient for me. I can totally handle Jensen when Jared is there but by himself, I am still a flailing idiot. But I managed. He took a minute to figure out what he was looking at, because it is a little hard to read at first, and then said, "This is cool! Did you make it?" And of course I had to be like, "noo, I got it online from this store for like $15" word vomit. And then he asked me if it was okay to sign on the black, which really I wanted them both to sign up top because the black is where I touch ALL THE TIME, and unfortunately it smeared pretty easily when I tested it. But I just COULD NOT bring myself to say no to Jensen's face as he looked up at me, so I said "wherever is fine!." So alas, I will not use this case anymore. And then he looked up and handed it to me and I somehow managed to very calmly say a cheerful THANK YOU! as he smiled at me.
As a side note, a girl in front of me had a guitar she was having signed and he was like "should I play something" and strummed it and...well...it sounded pretty horrible to me, and Jensen thought so too. HIS FAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE. It was the most adorable thing. He cringed and crinkled his nose and was like, "Maybe I'll just sign it."
Jared is of course, a giant child, and was like "Oh wow, this is cool!" And then of course asked, "Did you make it?" And I said no, and then managed to say (because I can for some reason act like a normal person around Jared now) "I am so not that cool." AND HE LAUGHED. I MADE JARED LAUGH. (totally normal person.) And then there was smiling and thank yous and one of my roommates was sitting next to him and said "thank you Carleen" and my brain went "I wonder if he'll remember my name." The impression I got from her is that they remember far more fans than everyone thinks they do, and I've already been impressed by how familiar they are with some of the fans. (And also a little creeped out, ngl. WHERE DO YOU COME UP WITH THIS MONEY, PEOPLE? M&G ARE NOT CHEAP!)
So that's that. I did have lots of fun, as one does at a convention, but like I said, I think nothing will ever top surprise!Jensen and J2M panel from last year, so I'm probably done with ChiCon. This was my fifth convention and at some point I've got to say 'okay enough,' you know? So yeah. Two conventions a year is far too much, Nashcon is much closer and much cheaper, and at some point I'd like to make it to Vancouver. Though the idea of flying there terrifies me, let alone the idea of being able to afford it.
Alas, until Nashcon.