Toronto Supernatural Con - Part 1
The Toronto Supernatural convention was amazing.
Part 1 - Thursday and Friday
I’m not going to give a play-by-play of the panels as you can get lots of detail elsewhere, from reports, blogs and the videos that have been posted. This is going to be a report from my pov, my impressions, feelings, high points, general fanflailing and pictures. I took the opportunity to splurge and get a VIP pass for this convention which meant I and nine other fans got to go backstage and talk to each of the panelists for about 10 minutes prior to or after their respective panels, a mini Q&A with each of them. It also allowed me to go to the front of the line for everything, autographs, pictures, events. That was number one awesomeness of this con compared to the other three I’ve attended. (Wow, four conventions under my belt and to think that my first Vancouver con in 2010 was going to be my one and only. Ha!) I also had a front row seat so I got some pretty good pictures, at least ones unobscured by people in front of me. I will put disclaimer here about the pictures and that is that I bought a brand new camera which I really didn’t know how to use so the quality and composition of many are so-so but I’m pretty happy with them for a first-time use.
I flew into Toronto on the Thursday and met up with my roomies morganoconner and wolfling which was terrific. I couldn’t have asked for better roomies as we were equally into the flailing, enabling and into giving each other space. We grabbed a quick bite on Thursday evening in the hotel restaurant and then turned in. Friday really didn’t start until afternoon but we had registration at 10:30 and that was my first exposure to the ability to jump the queues because of the VIP pass. That was a great perk.
So the panels started with Matt Cohen who was a delight. He is so charming and genuine. I confess that I had a hard time keeping my eyes off his arms when I was sitting at the table with him. He wore a clingy long-sleeved T and yeah, the arms were very nice ;) His panel was fun and he now wanders the audience, taking a page from his karaoke buddy Richard Speight’s book. He did the requisite Jared and Jensen imitations which always has people chuckling. Also he told us that his favorite actor that he had the opportunity to be with on the show was Amy. Awwww! John and Mary. :D
Next up were Elias and Gabriel Tynerman. What at delight talking to these guys backstage. They hadn’t seen each other since they had filmed the show and honestly, I could barely remember Elias’ character. He’s Canadian which is kind of fun for a Canuck as there really aren’t that many memorable characters played by Canadians. He is currently applying for a green card so that he can actually work in the States as well. He and Gabriel had great chemistry together both backstage and on stage, bantering. That was a definite unexpected win.
Amy Gumerick is so cute! She’s such a tiny thing but with this shiny personality and by that I mean lovely and almost bubbly but in a very genuine way. Her panel was fun and she had us smiling.
After Amy’s panel, it was time for us to run to the bus for the dinner cruise with Misha. I had been a little leery of the idea of the cruise, October in Toronto being rather unpredictable but the weather was amazing, warm and clear. What a fantastic idea that was. Misha arrived at the boat a little late as he had just flown in from LA but he was there and was such a charmer, making sure that he had spoken to everyone on board. My roomies and I had lined up at the bar and he talked with us there but then sat down at our table, as he had missed speaking with one of the women there. We all got laughing and morganoconner spilled that she had fibbed to get out of work for the weekend, saying that she was attending a wedding. The dear Mr Collins then snapped a photo on his phone and tweeted it along with commentary about her fibbing to her employer. It was actually pretty amusing. So that picture he tweeted, yup, my roomie! Lol!
Took this one as he was pretending to make amends for the attempt at getting morgan fired. :)
I asked Misha what prompted him to do the cruise both here and in Vancouver and he said that he felt sorry for the fans who were basically cooped up in a hotel all weekend and wanted to mix things up. It was a fantastic idea and a fabulous cruise. The food was good too and the view of the Toronto skyline was amazing. We all got a good bye hug at the end as we left the boat so that was pretty hard to beat. He does give wonderful hugs. Such a charmer, tease and really great man.
Toronto skyline from our cruise
Back at the hotel, the cruise participants got a late autograph session with the cast members right before the karaoke started. Even though charging through the autograph sessions is a necessity given the number of people, the actors are typically very gracious and this con was no different.
Karaoke was fun, a big sing-along really. I always enjoy those as I rarely get the chance to sing my lungs out. As usual I did have a very hoarse voice on Saturday. We did pack it in a little early, right after morganoconner and I had our pics done with the Karaoke Kings, aka Richard S and Matt C.
Groovy!!
We were both pretty pooped and had a long day ahead of us on Saturday. And we wanted to watch the new episode of the show which wolfling had downloaded.
A slight diversion from the con here… I really enjoyed the episode, 7.03 and it was fun knowing that we were going to be able to talk about the directing with Jensen. I thought the beginning, while quick to get the boys out of the hospital gave a good pace to the beginning. Jensen revealed during his Q&A that they had cut out quite a bit from the episode, where Dean was recouping in Rufus’ cabin/safe house, clips with Dean drinking beer, using his crutch as a light-sabre, things to show the passage of time. They also cut the actual pouring of the melted cheese over the guy at the end. Apparently that was quite awesome and the actor named Mike and a good friend of Jensen owns a bar in downtown Vancouver. Fun snippets that we got later. The way the episode ended, with Dean getting rid of Amy Pond (loved that nod to DW) while heartbreaking - she really did seem to be a good-at-heart character, was very Dean. One could argue that since he’d had the relationship with Lisa and Ben that he would not have done that but I don’t buy that. Dean is first and foremost a Hunter with a very black and white view of the world. I love him but he has said it himself. He’s a killer and his world is violent.
And tomorrow, I'll get the Saturday report and pics posted.
Part 1 - Thursday and Friday
I’m not going to give a play-by-play of the panels as you can get lots of detail elsewhere, from reports, blogs and the videos that have been posted. This is going to be a report from my pov, my impressions, feelings, high points, general fanflailing and pictures. I took the opportunity to splurge and get a VIP pass for this convention which meant I and nine other fans got to go backstage and talk to each of the panelists for about 10 minutes prior to or after their respective panels, a mini Q&A with each of them. It also allowed me to go to the front of the line for everything, autographs, pictures, events. That was number one awesomeness of this con compared to the other three I’ve attended. (Wow, four conventions under my belt and to think that my first Vancouver con in 2010 was going to be my one and only. Ha!) I also had a front row seat so I got some pretty good pictures, at least ones unobscured by people in front of me. I will put disclaimer here about the pictures and that is that I bought a brand new camera which I really didn’t know how to use so the quality and composition of many are so-so but I’m pretty happy with them for a first-time use.
I flew into Toronto on the Thursday and met up with my roomies morganoconner and wolfling which was terrific. I couldn’t have asked for better roomies as we were equally into the flailing, enabling and into giving each other space. We grabbed a quick bite on Thursday evening in the hotel restaurant and then turned in. Friday really didn’t start until afternoon but we had registration at 10:30 and that was my first exposure to the ability to jump the queues because of the VIP pass. That was a great perk.
So the panels started with Matt Cohen who was a delight. He is so charming and genuine. I confess that I had a hard time keeping my eyes off his arms when I was sitting at the table with him. He wore a clingy long-sleeved T and yeah, the arms were very nice ;) His panel was fun and he now wanders the audience, taking a page from his karaoke buddy Richard Speight’s book. He did the requisite Jared and Jensen imitations which always has people chuckling. Also he told us that his favorite actor that he had the opportunity to be with on the show was Amy. Awwww! John and Mary. :D
Next up were Elias and Gabriel Tynerman. What at delight talking to these guys backstage. They hadn’t seen each other since they had filmed the show and honestly, I could barely remember Elias’ character. He’s Canadian which is kind of fun for a Canuck as there really aren’t that many memorable characters played by Canadians. He is currently applying for a green card so that he can actually work in the States as well. He and Gabriel had great chemistry together both backstage and on stage, bantering. That was a definite unexpected win.
Amy Gumerick is so cute! She’s such a tiny thing but with this shiny personality and by that I mean lovely and almost bubbly but in a very genuine way. Her panel was fun and she had us smiling.
After Amy’s panel, it was time for us to run to the bus for the dinner cruise with Misha. I had been a little leery of the idea of the cruise, October in Toronto being rather unpredictable but the weather was amazing, warm and clear. What a fantastic idea that was. Misha arrived at the boat a little late as he had just flown in from LA but he was there and was such a charmer, making sure that he had spoken to everyone on board. My roomies and I had lined up at the bar and he talked with us there but then sat down at our table, as he had missed speaking with one of the women there. We all got laughing and morganoconner spilled that she had fibbed to get out of work for the weekend, saying that she was attending a wedding. The dear Mr Collins then snapped a photo on his phone and tweeted it along with commentary about her fibbing to her employer. It was actually pretty amusing. So that picture he tweeted, yup, my roomie! Lol!
Took this one as he was pretending to make amends for the attempt at getting morgan fired. :)
I asked Misha what prompted him to do the cruise both here and in Vancouver and he said that he felt sorry for the fans who were basically cooped up in a hotel all weekend and wanted to mix things up. It was a fantastic idea and a fabulous cruise. The food was good too and the view of the Toronto skyline was amazing. We all got a good bye hug at the end as we left the boat so that was pretty hard to beat. He does give wonderful hugs. Such a charmer, tease and really great man.
Toronto skyline from our cruise
Back at the hotel, the cruise participants got a late autograph session with the cast members right before the karaoke started. Even though charging through the autograph sessions is a necessity given the number of people, the actors are typically very gracious and this con was no different.
Karaoke was fun, a big sing-along really. I always enjoy those as I rarely get the chance to sing my lungs out. As usual I did have a very hoarse voice on Saturday. We did pack it in a little early, right after morganoconner and I had our pics done with the Karaoke Kings, aka Richard S and Matt C.
Groovy!!
We were both pretty pooped and had a long day ahead of us on Saturday. And we wanted to watch the new episode of the show which wolfling had downloaded.
A slight diversion from the con here… I really enjoyed the episode, 7.03 and it was fun knowing that we were going to be able to talk about the directing with Jensen. I thought the beginning, while quick to get the boys out of the hospital gave a good pace to the beginning. Jensen revealed during his Q&A that they had cut out quite a bit from the episode, where Dean was recouping in Rufus’ cabin/safe house, clips with Dean drinking beer, using his crutch as a light-sabre, things to show the passage of time. They also cut the actual pouring of the melted cheese over the guy at the end. Apparently that was quite awesome and the actor named Mike and a good friend of Jensen owns a bar in downtown Vancouver. Fun snippets that we got later. The way the episode ended, with Dean getting rid of Amy Pond (loved that nod to DW) while heartbreaking - she really did seem to be a good-at-heart character, was very Dean. One could argue that since he’d had the relationship with Lisa and Ben that he would not have done that but I don’t buy that. Dean is first and foremost a Hunter with a very black and white view of the world. I love him but he has said it himself. He’s a killer and his world is violent.
And tomorrow, I'll get the Saturday report and pics posted.