Dragon*Con 2011, seriously, no brain left. Part two.
This is the second part of my Dragon*Con 2011 report, continued from [ here].
After the Eureka panel, our small group of dedicated fans split up. Mama really wanted to go to a WKRP in Cincinatti panel, but I had no interest in a show that happened 150 years before I was born (okay, no interest in this show that happened 150 years before I was born*), and Amy wasn't really interested either even though it did air while she was alive (my sister is 150 years old). So while our mom went to stalk Howard Hesseman in the Hyatt, we went to a Star Trek: TNG panel in the Sheraton.
*Since I wrote this, I've watched four episodes of WKRP on Hulu. I like it.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Panel
Old people are cute.
We had pretty good seats when we first went inside and sat down, but while we were sitting there, a volunteer came over to us and told us to move down to the far end of the row, even though only a few other people came in. They filled up the rest of the row, and then the people who came in later all sat in the aisle seats (directly behind where we'd been sitting in the first place) and they didn't have to move down, so we ended up stuck behind a big speaker that was inconveniently placed in front of the screen so we couldn't see. But we could hear really well. And I could see Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden if I leaned onto the long-haired guy sitting beside me. Which I think he liked.
Here is a really terrible picture of Brent and Gates on screen behind the giant speaker. Amy had to lean far to her right to take it.
They both did a little dance around the table when they came out. It was cute. Brent and Gates are actually pretty good friends in real life (he's her son's godfather) and their senses of humor mesh really well, so it's fun to see them interracting with each other. I wasn't a big fan of Dr. Crusher on the series, but I really like Gates in real life. She's very funny and smart and entertaining. (And also a lot smaller than I expected!) She told us a funny story about a wardrobe malfunction she had on the way to some ST event. She was sharing a limo with Brent and Jonathan Frakes, and when she got in, all the buttons at the top of her dress and at the bottom of her dress burst open, so on the way there, Brent and Jonathan both climbed on top of her to help her button herself back up. While these two men were on top of her in the back of the limo, and they were all grunting and struggling with the dress, she happened to look up and could see the driver watching them in the rearview mirror. Heh.
Two of the other stories from the panel that I would normally have just typed here are actually both in the following clip. One is about a scar Brent got while they were filming the first time Dr. Crusher had to turn Data off in the series, and the other is about Gates' son. He grew up on the set of Star Trek and learned to walk on the bridge, but when she tells the story, she can't remember the word "bridge." She's like, that room... where we all sit... and drive? Anyway, it's cute, and the clip is only 5 minutes long. Watch!
"Nobody's filming this, are they? It's not going to be on Youtube, is it?"
Also, Brent is in a webseries on youtube called [Fresh Hell]. It's only got five very short episodes and some outtakes, but some of it is pretty funny. He talked about it very briefly in the panel and later made me promise I would watch it, so I watched it when I got home from D*C. And I have to say, I never knew how much I wanted to hear Brent Spiner talk about his penis until I watched episode four. :D
Meanwhile
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
My mom apparently enjoyed the WKRP in Cincinatti panel, though she didn't have much to say about it later except that she enjoyed it, and that Loni Anderson has clearly had work done.
Howard Hesseman and Loni Anderson.
After the panel, she stalked Howard on the escalator. Which I feel pretty sure she would deny, but I have the photographic evidence right here:
You can run, but you can't hide from middle-aged half-Japanese paparazzi.
And that goes for you too, old man superhero thing.
Amy and I had agreed to meet Mama back in the hotel room after our respective panels got over (around 6:30) because the next thing we wanted to do - the Buffy Horror Picture Show - wasn't supposed to start until 8:30. But when we left the Sheraton, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the Marriott and go ahead and buy my William Shatner photo op for the next day at 11:00AM, because in previous years, whenever I went to buy photo ops from Froggy photos right before those photos were supposed to happen, the lines were inevitably really long, and I always got nervous that I would miss the photo op. Plus the Misha Collins photo op time was from 10:15 to 11, so I wanted to make sure I could come straight from that to the Shatner op and not have to worry about standing in another line between the two. This turned out to be a good decision because when I went to buy my photo ops, the line was super short (compared to what I was used to) and I didn't feel hurried at all. I bought my Saturday Shat photo for $75, and I also went ahead and bought my Sunday True Blood photo (with Jim Parrack and Joe Mangina-low) for $55. And THEN we went back to our room in the Hyatt.
As soon as I got back to the room, I pulled off my facial hair and stretched my mouth open really wide. Mama was already in there watching DC*TV. They were replaying some of the panels from earlier in the day, in case you missed them, which I think is great. The Supernatural panel we skipped was on when Amy and I came in the room. It turns out that for some reason, the Daily Dragon had misreported that Misha wasn't going to be there, and so he actually was, although Jim Beaver wasn't. I was disappointed that I had missed it so that I could watch my mother and sister eat, but watching the entire thing on DC*TV wasn't too bad, and at least I could do that without my wig on.
I took off all my Ronon stuff and ate some potato chips while watching the SPN panel. Misha actually got one girl on stage so he could see her belly-dancing outfit better, and then he invited her to sit on his lap and use his microphone to ask a question. He kept her on his lap while everyone on the panel answered, even after she asked if she should get up. It was cute. You can watch them here:
"Whoa, whoa, flirting? There's no flirting going on here, we're just... there's a shortage of seating, is all."
Mark Sheppard is always fun in a panel, too. He's very funny, and I love the way he talks. In this panel, he was doodling on a piece of paper the entire time, even while he was answering questions. ADD much? Later Misha held it up so the camera could see and called it the scribblings of a mad man. Heh.
My mom was really surprised about Misha's voice - that it was a lot higher than she expected. But that's because he puts on a low one for Castiel. I knew to expect that because I've watched a lot of Misha's interviews, but it's still kind of funny.
After the SPN panel ended, DC*TV started playing the Next Gen panel that Amy and I had gone to, but we didn't watch the whole thing.
Data's head flops over to one side. It's how you can tell he's thinking about something.
Amy got on the phone with her husband Jamey for a few minutes, so I called my other sister Sara. Sara immediately told me to tell Amy to call Jamey because he hadn't heard from her since the day before and wasn't even sure she'd gotten to Atlanta okay. Whoops?
I was contemplating not going to the things we had planned that night because I kind of couldn't bear the thought of putting on all my Ronon stuff again - the wig and facial hair, especially - which I had already worn for about ten hours straight. But I didn't want to just change clothes and leave the hotel room without taking a shower first, because... I had just worn a wig for ten hours straight. My hair looked grosssss. But I didn't have time to take a shower if we were going to the Buffy and Doctor Horrible sing-alongs. Mama and Amy wanted me to put on my Captain Hammer shirt and go anyway, and Amy actually tried to get me to wear my groupie outfit and the Ronon wig and facial hair (crossover FTW?) but wearing the wig anyway would have defeated the purpose of changing clothes in the first place. But I wasn't tired or anything, and I didn't want to be lame and miss something, so I did put on my groupie shirt, and I just put my hair in pigtails and hoped no one would notice how awful I looked. (At least I still looked better than most of the zombies we saw.)
It was already around 8:30 by the time we left the room, and it occurred to us that going straight to the Buffy Horror Picture Show and then from there to the Doctor Horrible Sing-Along would mean no supper until after midnight. Which was doable, and we've certainly gone hungry at cons before (I usually lose three or four pounds at con, no lie), but we go to the BHPS every year, so we've seen it before several times, and it wouldn't be a big deal to miss it. Which is why we ended up going to the Peachtree Center foodcourt instead for some real food, and just planned to go to the Doctor Horrible thing(-along) after that.
Zombie Prom! Wait... Zombie Prom?
All we wanna do is eat your brains. (We're not unreasonable.)
We got food from a place in the food court called Farmer's Basket, which is basically very large portions of Southern-style sides and Chinese-style chicken. Yum! And sweet tea. I find that the older I get, the more I embrace sweet tea over carbonated drinks. I am probably turning into an old Southern biddy. (Old Southern Biddy is the name of my Dolly Parton cover band.) I got honey chicken, fried okra, and red potatoes at Farmer's Basket, but they gave me so much that I still had most of my chicken left over when I was full. I was sad to have to throw it away, but I didn't want to carry leftovers around with me for the rest of the night, and anyway we didn't have a fridge in the room.
While we were sitting in the food court eating, a very long line of zombies stumbled by our table. There were so many of them that I figured this was part of D*C's annual Zombie Walk, which I had always assumed took place entirely outside, like the parade. It was quite entertaining to watch them all go by, some of them wearing zombie costumes and some of them being actual zombies. Zombie cosplayers are the most dedicated, I think. They zombie it up at all times - not just by wearing the costume, but by actually limping around the con and groaning with bones protruding from their bodies and flaps of skin hanging off. One guy had an obviously broken neck and was dragging one leg. I think if I were ever turned into a real zombie, I would totally come to Dragon*Con just to socialize without people being suspicious of me. Until I ate them. (So... just like real life, then.)
After the Zombie Walk staggered out, we headed over to the Sheraton to stand in line for Doctor Horrible, which was supposed to start at ten. We didn't bother consulting the program guide or my paranoid color-coded schedule before we went because the Sheraton is where Doctor Horrible has taken place the last few times we went. It was about a two-block walk, and we encountered more zombies along the way. Some were dressed in formal attire. When we crossed the street to the Sheraton's front entrance, I happened to notice that the three of us were, in fact, the only non-zombies in the crowd. I turned to Mama and Amy and said, "Did we accidentally join the Zombie Walk?" and we all started laughing because there were literally dozens of walking dead people and no one else.
When we went inside the building, we walked over to the staircase up to the ballroom where they had held the sing-along in previous years. We were stopped behind a group of zombies at the bottom of the staircase for a minute, and while we were standing there, a bunch of (ten? fifteen?) soldier-looking people in all black came running down the stairs and aimed their fake guns at us and mimed shooting. All of the zombies started growling and reaching for the soldier guys, and some of the zombies fell down (from having been shot in the head, I guess), and LOTS of people were taking pictures. The three of us stood in the middle of all the zombies looking really confused, I'm sure. Mama and I started talking about how we probably had accidentally joined the Zombie Walk, but when we turned toward Amy to tell her this, we saw her from behind, the lone blonde girl in her blue Captain Hammer shirt, ascending the stairs entirely surrounded by a group of the walking dead! She was just following them as though she belonged. The image was so incongruous that Mama and I nearly had heart attacks laughing at her, and Mama asked me for the camera (which I had in my purse), but I was laughing so hard that by the time I managed to get it out, Amy was already at the top of the stairs getting in line.
At some point - and I don't remember this, but they say it happened - Amy and Mama asked someone if we were in the right place for the Doctor Horrible Sing-Along, and they were told that we were. So we lined up outside the ballroom with all the zombies. I remember thinking it was kind of odd that so many zombies and a voodoo priest wanted to see Doctor Horrible this year, but then telling myself that it wasn't really that odd, because it's a great show, right?
We were in line behind a couple of the soldier guys who were dressed all in black. Their uniforms had patches that said Umbrella Corporation. Amy and I asked one soldier guy what the Umbrella Corporation was, and he said it was the name of the company in Resident Evil, where all these people turned into zombies and the remaining guys had to fight them. And then the guy said something like, "but I guess they wouldn't need to if Captain Hammer was there!" and smiled at us. So naturally I was reassured that we were in the right place, because at least THIS guy was talking about Doctor Horrible.
I guess it was around ten when they started letting the line inside the ballroom. There were ropes that we had to zigzag through to get to the door, and zigzagging past so many zombie costumes started making us paranoid again that something wasn't right. I had been joking earlier that it would be really funny if we had accidentally gone to Zombie Prom instead of Doctor Horrible, and it WAS funny, but it was one of those things that's funny and then awkward and then funny again... and then awkward. We kept laughing and stopping and then laughing again. Before we got to the door into what looked suspiciously like a prom for zombies, I finally pulled my schedule out of my purse just to make certain the Sheraton was indeed the right place.
It wasn't. Obviously. The Doctor Horrible Sing-Along was at the Westin this year.
When I told my mom and sister, we laughed again because DUH OF COURSE WE WERE AT ZOMBIE PROM and then my mom was like, when we get to the head of the line, instead of going inside the door, let's just keep walking past the door. But Amy goes, "No! I stood in line for Zombie Prom for 45 minutes. I'm going in." Right on, sis! So we went in.
It was pretty dark in there, but you could still see all the zombies prowling around. As soon as we walked in, Amy saw one of her college students. The girl was pretty excited to see her teacher there. She was like, "I love you even more now!" and gave her a hug. Part of her zombieness rubbed off on Amy's shoulder. So we're watching for signs of my sister turning into a zombie now.
We walked to the middle of the room, and as a joke I said, well, let's dance! and then did my best dancing zombie impression. Amy joined in, and Mama took a picture of us. It was at least as fun as the sing-along would have been.
When she saw our mom taking a picture, another lady ran up and took our picture, too. Captain Hammer zombies FTW! (Also WTF?)
You can't really tell where we are in the picture, so for further proof that this was in fact Zombie Prom, Amy and I went around taking more pictures of [intentional] zombies:
I heard someone yell at these guys, "It's Zombie Prom, not Zombie Wedding!" As though they had ruined the whole thing.
This is what I call costume dedication. (Dead-ication?)
So much for protecting us.
We didn't actually stay at Zombie Prom very long, just long enough to have the Best Time Ever, and then we snuck out the back. Oh, and there's a TARDIS that they stick outside the ballroom every year which is great for photo ops, and we decided that we would come back and take pictures with it later, but we never did. Sadface. But we have pictures of it from previous years, so that's okay.
In the skywalk on our way back to the Hyatt.
When we got back to the room, Mama talked to my brother Brad on the phone about crashing at the hotel that night because he and his wife Natalie had gone to the Braves game and didn't feel like driving all the way home. Plus if they stayed with us, they could get up and watch the parade in the morning. So that's what they did. When they showed up, we told them about accidentally attending Zombie Prom while dressed as Captain Hammer groupies, which I have to say is probably my favorite D*C story ever. (We accidentally went to see Voltaire once, too, but that wasn't nearly as funny.) I'm so amused by it because this was my sixth Dragon*Con and I stopped feeling like a tourist after my second one, so this was the first time in a while that I actually felt like I didn't blend in there.
Since we just had the two beds, Brad slept on the floor. We tried going to sleep around 1:30 or so, but I kept thinking about Zombie Prom, and the way Amy looked being swept up in the wake of the zombies on the staircase, and I kept randomly giggling and keeping everyone else up. Also, the first thing I had to do the next morning was my Misha Collins photo op, followed by my Shatner photo op, and I was spectacularly nervous. I didn't fall asleep for a long time.
Saturday: Goodbye, Cas and Data!
Fly, my pretties.
The first thing I did on Saturday morning was take an anxiety pill. I call them my chill pills because they help me chillax when I'm nervous. Yeah, you heard me. CHILLAX. I said it. One of the side effects of these pills for me is euphoria, so it's always a pretty happy time when I take them. I didn't want to wear a costume on Saturday or Sunday because of photo ops - and since everyone clears out by like one or so on Monday, it's pretty useless to wear a costume on that day too - so on Saturday, I wore my t-shirt that looks like a tuxedo. Because I thought it would be nice to look fancy for my Misha and Shat photos, y/y?
Mama, Amy, Brad, and Nat all went to the parade at ten, but I actually left the room before they did and ran over to the Hilton for the Misha Collins photo op at 10:15. (The Illumina website said to show up early.) There was already a longish line, so I got in the back of it, and I think only a couple of other people came in after me. I had both my Castiel and Data dolls with me in a totebag because I wanted Cas in the photo with me and Misha, and I figured I would also give the dolls to Misha and Brent later at the Walk of Fame, and I didn't want to have to go back to the room first. So while I was waiting in the line, I went ahead and pulled the Castiel doll out of my bag and started fixing his hair and coat. The girl ahead of me in line saw him and we struck up a conversation. I don't remember her name, but she was nice. She had just come to D*C that morning and had been rushing around trying to register and everything before the photo op, and she was worried about her hair, but I told her it looked good. While our part of the line was still outside the photo room, the girl took a picture of my Cas doll, which I thought was kind of funny, and then another girl ahead of her in line also wanted a photo of the doll. So two other fans out there have photos of my Castiel! I think that's neat.
The Illumina photo room was set up in a different way from the way Froggy does it. For Froggy photos, almost the entire line waits in an anteroom while only the next two or three people can actually see the photos being taken, but for Illumina, everyone is in the same room and the backdrop you stand in front of is facing the line, so everyone still waiting in line can see you pose for your photo. I liked being able to see Misha the whole time I was waiting, but it made me even more nervous knowing that everyone would be able to see me. I calmed down a bit when I realized I was so close to the back of the line, but then the two girls who had taken photos of my Cas doll asked me to go in front of them in the line so that they could watch Misha's reaction to the doll. *panic attack* So of course I went in front of them, hoping really hard that he wouldn't think the doll thing was weird.
Oh, and also, when I moved up in line, a girl ahead of me saw the doll and then pointed at a big sign that said you couldn't give the celebs gifts during their photo ops. THANKS I KNOW. Obviously that's the kind of thing that I would check before trying to do it, geez. I did think it might be a little strange to have him hold the doll for our photo, take it back from him, and then give it to him later, but that was exactly what I planned to do. I sort of had this idea that I would let him know after our photo that I was going to give it to him later, but then, like a tool, I froze up and very nearly didn't say anything at all. Such is my way.
My conversation with Misha at this point was very short. When it was my turn, I walked up and shook his hand, and then I held out the doll and asked if he would hold it for our picture. He seemed to be in a pleasant mood, smiling and all, looking really attractive (such is his way). His eyebrows went up when he saw the doll, and he took it and sort of looked it over and said, "Wow, you made this?" And I said yes, and he sounded really impressed and said, "Look at the craftsmanship. Look at the eyes. That's great. It looks really good." As I was saying thank you, he stuffed doll!Cas into the crook of his arm and put his other arm around me for the photo.
Look At The Eyes is the name of my Billy Joel cover band.
Also: Castiel isn't made to be able to sit down like that. I think that's why he's turning away from the camera. He's just uncomfortable.
Misha smiled and handed the doll back to me when our picture was over and told me again that it looked good, and I thanked him for the picture. And ran away. Actually, I had to go back to a table we'd passed on the way into the room and get my purse and the tote with Data crammed in it. I forgot to watch the girls I had talked to in the line while they got their pictures made, but I was still fiddling with my stuff when they came to get their stuff from the table, and I think I said it was nice meeting them, and then I took off for the Marriott for my photo op/second date with Bill Shatner, who is my lover.
I ended up somewhere in the middle of the Shatner photo op line, which was a nice surprise because I'd expected to be at the very end again. While the line moved slowly forward, I started talking with two other women who were in line behind me. The reason I started talking to them is because they looked exactly alike. Which is dumb, because I grew up with a set of identical twins and it isn't anything special to me... when it's my sisters. But for some reason, when I see other people who look just alike, I find it neat. So I did the thing people do to twins all the time and said, "Are y'all sisters?" And they gave the standard answer in sync: "We're twins."
The twins were really super nice. One of them came across as "the smart one" and the other was "the funny one," which is how twins are always written, though I don't usually find it to be that way in real life. They were brunette and looked to be about forty-ish. This was their first convention, so they had a lot of questions, and I talked to them for a long time. I tried to tell them where the consuite was, but I was afraid they'd get totally lost trying to find it, so I showed them the maps in the pocket program guide. They asked me about some of the celebrities that I've met at D*C, but they didn't know anyone I named. So I asked them what shows they watched, thinking maybe I could name some celebs they would know, but it turned out that we had exactly zero in common besides the Shat. And they asked me if Harrison Ford ever came to cons. Heh. I said no, that he was probably working on films too steadily to have time for conventions, and they seemed disappointed. But they were fun to talk to, anyway.
For Illumina photos, you walk in and leave your stuff on a table and then go pick it back up after the picture. For Froggy photos, you hand your stuff to one of the helpers and they run across the room with it behind the backdrop and set it on the table you have to pass by on your way out. So when it got close to my turn, I handed my purse and tote with the dolls to a woman who carried it across the room for me. She was actually standing directly behind the backdrop when someone else had their picture made, and it struck me as really strange that this woman would probably have been in a LOT of people's photos if that backdrop hadn't been there. In this case, she would have been standing behind Shatner and holding my purse.
The [ last time] I had my photo made with Bill, I was grinning at him somewhat creepily and completely ignoring the camera. So I thought for this picture, it would be cute for him to be looking at me. When I walked up to him for the photo, we said hi to each other, and I asked him if he would look at me for the picture. And he seemed kind of confused and amused at the same time and said, "Let's look at the camera. You'll like it better!" which made me laugh. And as soon as they snapped the picture, Bill went on, "But I'll look at you now." And then he just turned and stared pleasantly at my face. Haha. I didn't know what to do with him looking at me like that, so I was just like, "Thank you!" and ran away. (But first we had sex.)
He's actually saying the word "better" here, and I'm laughing, which is why my eyes are in the process of disappearing.
As second dates go, I think it went rather well. And any time Captain Kirk (or Denny Crane) looks directly into your eyes for any length of time, that automatically counts as getting to at least second base, amiright? Anyway, it felt good. And that's all I'm going to say about it.
Oh, and there was a Parade.
One year I'm going to go to this.
So while I was fangirling all over Misha and Bill (they actually had to wipe their faces afterward), the rest of my family was watching the nerd parade. I didn't see any of the parade, but I'll post some of the pictures my mom and sister took of it:
They brought back Business Dragon! We loved this guy last year. From what I understand, he was one of many dragons leading the parade. It's hilarious to me that he is walking through the parade and doing business at the same time. What a busy dragon.
I thought this Hagrid was extremely Hagridy.
So wrong it's right.
Who knew [Don Cheadle] was at D*C this year?
Boxful of heroes.
What are these things? I've seen a ton of them around, but I have no idea who they are. We even took a picture of one last year.
Here is dirty Wolverine. He is turning away from the leopard tights in confusion and embarrassment.
So cute! They did the routine and everything!
Best. Fight scene. Ever. And Butterkwup's costume looks pretty great.
This storm trooper is too cool for school. He is the kind of storm trooper who, when you say you like his outfit, would say, "I don't wear outfits," and then look past you into the distance.
I don't know, but it's big and awesome.
Fellowship of the Sun. (I just typed Ring.)
I love this guy! If you look that much like Scotty, you can't not be him at cons. We took a pic with him last year.
OMG FRIENDSHIP IS TOTALLY MAGIC
If you crack her open, there is a one-eyed tentacle monster inside. Just FYI.
Captains Jack and John genderswap! ♥ We also saw a lot of female 11th Doctors.
Two Doctors in a Delorean? This is much more awesome than you think it is. (I love that Ten is driving.)
There were so many TARDISes (tardes? tards?) this year.
Should I be scared that I don't remember seeing this guy? OMG WHAT ARE THESE MARKS ON MY ARM
Star Wars Panel
Meh.
Brad and Natalie left Atlanta after the parade was over, and Amy and Mama went to stand in line for the 11:30 Star Wars panel. None of us, as far as I can remember, have ever been to a Star Wars panel at D*C (or anywhere else). I've always heard that you pretty much either align yourself with Star Wars or Star Trek, and never the twain shall meet. I don't know if that's true of everyone, but I'm definitely more of a Trek fan (although I've seen both Star Wars movies*). And the only Star Wars actors that have been to cons we've been to are Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), who shows up everywhere we go and hasn't yet convinced me that he's not stalking us, the guy who played young Anakin (Jake something?), and the guys who played C3PO and Jango Fett. But Carrie Fisher was at D*C this year, and Mama and Amy both really wanted to see her.
I, however, was much too busy sexing Bill Shatner at the time and couldn't be bothered.
*Just kidding, I know there were four Star Wars movies.
They took a few pictures on the way to the Star Wars panel.
Cute li'l Steampunk family. And like I always say, it's good to start them with guns early.
Amy and Mama were being the Nerd Herd from Chuck that day. Can you have a herd of two?
They ran into some other nerds (how can you not run into nerds at a sci-fi con?) and tried to take a picture, but some D*C volunteers made them disperse. For some reason.
Carrie Fisher has clearly been taking hairstyle tips from Peter Mayhew.
My mom said that Carrie was smoking during this panel. I didn't think that was allowed inside the hotels, but another fan told my mom that it was actually an electronic cigarette and the smoke she was exhaling was some kind of vapor. Which doesn't explain why the fire alarm went off during the panel, but then again, the fire alarm went off in the Marriott's Atrium Ballroom during a couple of other panels we went to as well, and no one was smoking in those. They never made us evacuate the room, though.
My mom also said that Peter Mayhew seemed to know what he was talking about every time he answered something, but that he talked reeeeeeeeeeally slowly. I think the sound just takes longer to leave his body because he is so tall.
Amy and Mama left the Star Wars panel early after they got their Carrie Fisher fix. They were only there for about twenty minutes or so. Amy stopped outside the ballroom to get a slice of pizza, and then the two of them joined me in the Dollhouse panel line at the Westin, where I had been texting with my friend Zach and trying to make notes in my notebook about what we'd done so far at D*C. (I only got as far as Thursday.) This was the only time during the con that I wrote anything down! I am a bad reporter.
Dollhouse Panel
I *love* Eliza and Tahmoh. I want to call them Elahmoh. Or Penikushku.
Since I had been sitting in the Dollhouse line for over an hour, we ended up with really good seats for the panel. And since we had really good seats for the panel, we ended up taking a lot of pictures.
These people are so pretty.
I really enjoyed this panel because Tahmoh and Eliza are so cute together and have such energy. Tahmoh actually talked about the last Dollhouse panel he did a couple years ago where he was severely hungover and ended the panel early, and I was like, I remember that! But this wasn't anything like that one. They both seemed happy and like they really did want to talk about the show.
Tahmoh talked a little bit about how it was to walk on set the first time and see Joss and Eliza being all buddy-buddy with each other while he was the awkward new guy, and then he flubbed his first line and was so embarrassed. He accidentally called the Dollhouse the Wallhouse, and they were like, CUT! Did you just say... Wallhouse? Heh. He actually told this story last time, too, so on my autograph he wrote, "Welcome to the Wallhouse." But it was funnier this time with Eliza sitting there.
Eliza talked about becoming an official citizen of Albania, and how they're making a documentary about it. Which was kind of neat. I had no idea her parents were from there.
My favorite part of the panel was probably when someone asked them what other character from Dollhouse they would want to play if they had to switch parts, and Tahmoh started talking about how badly he wanted to be a doll. He said he actually filmed himself auditioning to be a doll even though he was already Paul on the show, and he sent the tape to Joss and Eliza. And Eliza said it wasn't very good, haha. You can see both of their answers to that question [here on Youtube]. It segues into a love-fest over Olivia Williams and Alan Tudyk.
Like I said, I enjoyed this panel a lot, but I can't really think of anything that stands out about it besides the fact that Tahmoh and Eliza are pretty great. [This person] has uploaded several videos of Eliza from D*C this year, including a lot of the Dollhouse panel if you want to see more.
There was a Supernatural panel right after this one, and I was concerned that we might not make it in because the SPN lines were pretty long all con (this was the first year D*C had any guests from Supernatural), so I left the Dollhouse panel running. I grabbed another Daily Dragon from the information booth on the way out of the Westin. Oh, and we ran into Julie - my sister Sara's ex-roommate; she came as Dexter last year - for a minute before racing to the Marriott.
Supernatural Panel
Now I kind of want to ship Castiel/Ellen. Is that weird?
Jim Beaver wasn't at this panel either, which was a little disappointing, but I did get to see him the next day. This one was just Samantha Ferris (Ellen), Misha Collins (Castiel), and Julie McNiven (Anna). When Misha came out, he brought with him a Castiel puppet that a fan had made and given to him. In [this clip], you can see him put it together and get a guy to come onstage to do a little puppeteering during the Q&A. It was pretty cute.
I wouldn't have thought to make a puppet. Kind of a neat idea, although what do you do with it when you get home?
I think it was this panel in which the moderator said Colin Ferguson had submitted a question for Julie McNiven. It was something like, why did you pour tequila on me last night? Ha. It was apparently an accident. She'd been pretending she was going to pour it on him and someone hit her hand, so she did actually spill it. She seemed pretty embarrassed.
Speaking of embarrassing! Someone asked the panel about embarrassing moments from the set of Supernatural, and Misha told a horrible story about food poisoning. It's not even funny! It's just sad. Definitely something I would have kept to myself, but I guess he did warn us that it was disgusting first. Here is what he told us:
Yeah, I just spent four hours on Youtube. I found this clip within the first five minutes, but I can't. stop. watching Misha. at conventions.
I liked Samantha's embarrassing moment. No one told her that she shouldn't point her shotgun at anyone (it wasn't loaded, and she wasn't thinking), so she was gesturing around a lot with it on set and people were all diving out of the way and she had no idea that it was because of her. So she was looking around for the reason why Jared and Jensen were ducking.
Misha also said at one point that when the directors let the actors interpret the scene whatever way they want to, he likes to do a couple of takes with his penis visible. This is very similar to something Colin Ferguson said in a Friday panel. What's the deal, guys? And more importantly, where is this footage? Also, someone asked him to talk about NPR because he used to work there. She actually said, "Talk nerdy to me," so he started listing off the names of some people from NPR in a sexy voice. Now that I think about it, Misha's actually kind of perverted during panels. He even made a reference to Julie's hair not being red everywhere wink wink nudge nudge.
The fire alarm went off again during this panel. Samantha was like, seriously? But Misha was all, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you all get into heaven." :)
Misha's not feeling it. :(
Something I've noticed during a lot of D*C panels is that everyone asks the same questions over and over. One of them is "If you could play any character on the show other than your character, who would it be?" It's a fun question I guess, and I thought Tahmoh's answer in the Dollhouse panel was funny, but I get tired of hearing that same question in every. panel. for four. days straight. In this one, Misha said he'd play young Mary, but he'd play her more feminine. Samantha said she'd play Ash. SPN genderswap! ♥
Can I just say, I love Samantha Ferris? She seems great! Like, just a fun person to talk to. I really liked Ellen on the show, too, but Samantha is much brighter than her character. By which I mean happier in general, not necessarily smarter. She was pretty funny, too. And I'll be honest; I have a thing for busty women. Did Ellen and Castiel ever have scenes together on SPN? I want them to now.
This entire panel has been uploaded to youtube in four parts, beginning [here].
Amy got up and left the SPN panel after a few minutes of it because she wanted to go ahead and get in line for the True Blood panel that was happening at 4:00 and she doesn't watch SPN anyway. Mama was planning to join her after this panel got over, but my plan was to go to another ST:TNG panel at the Sheraton (this time with Wil Wheaton). But at the end of the Supernatural panel, Misha Collins reminded everyone that they were doing autographs at the Hilton and invited everyone to come speak to them in person, and that reminded me that I had two photos waiting to be picked up, and I decided that I would rather get my photos and give Misha his doll than go to another TNG panel. Besides, I was going to see Wil Wheaton the next day in a Eureka panel. SO when we left the SPN panel, instead of going to the Sheraton for Wil, I went to the Hilton for more Misha.
Hey, Ass-butt!
"This is the best Castiel doll I have ever seen."
The first thing I did in the Hilton was go find my Misha picture, which I stuck in the doll tote I was carrying around. Then I walked over to the Walk of Fame rooms. I think I mentioned earlier that the people being represented by Illumina were in a small room near the Walk of Fame instead of being in the room with everyone else, which may be one reason Misha felt like he had to tell everyone to come see them; the tiny room they were in felt very exclusive. In fact, I thought I had to buy a ticket to enter at all. You actually buy autograph tickets in the room next door, where they had these long queues set up. At the end of the queue is the table where you buy the autograph and they give you a ticket, and then you take the ticket into the little room where the actors are sitting. But there's a person guarding the door to that room who won't let you in without the password and secret handshake. Okay not really. But they do ask you why you want to go in, which makes it seem like you have to have a ticket before you can even speak to these people.
To be honest, I wasn't planning to buy Misha's autograph. My plan was to go in and speak to him at his table and give him the doll. I already had proof that I had met him in the photo we took together. But when I got to the signing room and saw that it was guarded, I decided to buy an autograph ticket because I thought that was the only way I could go inside, and anyway, autographs at D*C are usually only $25 or $30. OH WAIT. UNLESS IT'S ILLUMINA. Misha's signature was $50, so with the photo, I ended up spending $110 on him. *dies a little*
I asked one of the Illumina people (can I call them the Illuminati? Would that be wrong?) where I was supposed to go to buy the autograph, so they pointed me at the room with the super long line. While I was waiting in line, a woman came in shouting, "Is anyone in here waiting on Misha Collins? Who wants a Misha Collins autograph?" And I was going, "Me, me! I do!" except that I didn't have a ticket yet. Some people were stepping out of the line and going up to the front, and... it was a very confusing time for me! I had no idea what was going on, if I was going to miss him because I hadn't bought my ticket in time, or what. When I finally got to the front and spent my money *clutches heart* and got my ticket - and the 8x10 photo of Misha for him to sign - I ran out after the other people who had bought Misha tickets. The person guarding the door to the other room wanted to know why I was going in, and I said I wanted Misha's autograph and showed my ticket. So they let me in, but not before making me feel extremely judged.
I think, and I'm not sure so don't quote me, that the problem was that so many people were there for Amanda Tapping's autograph that the signing room would have been too crowded to let her line start at her table, so the Illumina people were keeping Amanda's line in the other room and letting a few go in at a time to keep the place from getting too crowded. But they were letting in the other actors' fans at the normal pace, which was why they were periodically going into the line room and asking if anyone was there to see other actors. So if you were there, for instance, to see Misha, you wouldn't have to wait in Amanda's line; you could just go in. But I didn't get that until afterwards, so the whole thing just seemed confusing and weird.
Misha was sitting at the table farthest away from the door to the room. He had some people in his line when I went in, but not many, maybe 7 or 8. One other girl and her dad came in after me. She was getting an autograph for her friend. I let them go in front of me because I was pretty nervous, and if there's ever someone waiting behind me to do something, I always feel really rushed. So I was the last one in line. And I think it's completely natural to eavesdrop on the people in front of you in autograph lines, so that's exactly what I did. Misha was being very friendly, asking people what their costumes were and stuff. The group ahead of the girl I'd let in front of me invited Misha to something, and he said he would go, which I thought was cool. I don't remember what it was though, an art show or something. And then the girl ahead of me went. And then it was my turn.
When I walked up, I gave the volunteer woman sitting with him my ticket. (He was still talking to the other girl while I did this.) She asked my name and wrote it down on a little piece of paper so that he wouldn't misspell it on the autograph. I've noticed that a lot of celebrities have their volunteers do this for them. I told her it was Jenny and spelled it out loud, even though every time I meet someone, I introduce myself as Jen. For some reason, "Jen" is harder to understand at first hearing than "Jenny" is.
ANYway, so I set the 8x10 down in front of Misha when the other girl walked away, and I said, "Hi, I'm Jenny. I had my picture taken with you this morning." Because that's not dorky to point out at all. And he nodded and said, "I remember. I remember the doll."
I was actually holding the doll when I started talking to him, so I held it out and said something like, "I wanted you to have it. I was going to give it to you earlier, but they wouldn't let us give you gifts during your photo op." He had taken the doll and was admiring it, but he looked up when I said that and went, "Really?" like he wasn't pleased that they would restrict us like that (although I find it understandable). Or maybe he didn't believe me because other people had given him stuff during his photo. But then he was like, "Well, I think it's amazing." So of course I thanked him, and he was still looking at it, like lifting up the coat and looking under it and stuff. And he was shaking his head like he couldn't believe it, and then he looked right into my eyes and said sincerely,
"I have to be honest, this is the best Castiel doll I have ever seen. Look at all the detail."
Then I launched myself to the moon for about three seconds.
So the volunteer lady goes, "You made this?" and I said, "Yeah, I crocheted it. While I watched Supernatural." *cheesy grin at Misha* (I do crochet in front of the TV, but I don't remember what I watched while I made Castiel. Probably ST:TNG.) And Misha showed the volunteer the doll and said, "She even got the--" and then turned back to me holding the coat open and finished, "You even got the collar!" and pointed at the little shirt collar, which I'd had to sew on separately.
Since he was holding the trench coat open, I said, "The coat comes off. The trench coat, not the black one." And he started pulling on the sleeve, going, "It comes off?" like he wanted to pull it off right then, and I was like, "Yeah, you can take it off. Just the trench coat, though. The other one is sewn on." And he stopped pulling on it and looked at me again and said, "This is so good."
Then I said, "You have a child, right? A really young one?" and he said, "Yeah, my kid's going to love this." And then he went to lay the doll on the table, so I said, "It stands up." And he goes, "Oh, yeah, because it's weighted, right?" and he starts trying to stand him up, and I said, "Yeah, his hands and feet and butt are beany," but Misha couldn't get the doll to stand - it kept falling over - so he, like, starts smashing the doll's legs against the table, haha, and he goes, "I love that he stands up!" while he's clearly not standing up. So I took the doll and stood him up on the table.
Right when I let go of the doll, a woman came back behind the table and gave Misha a drink - it looked like maybe a rum and coke? Or Jack and coke. Something mixed with coke, anyway, with a lime on the side of the cup - and he spoke to her for a minute about paying. It was $27, and I'm assuming - hoping - that the $27 was for more than just his drink and the drink he bought for the volunteer, because otherwise, damn. And he set his drink on the table while he paid, but it was right in front of the doll standing there, and I got nervous that the doll would fall forward into the drink and be ruined, so I was like, "Um, this is an accident waiting to happen..." and when the lady walked away, Misha looked down at the doll to see what would happen. And it did fall, but it fell backward instead of forward onto the drink - *phew* - and he looked at me like he thought it was funny that I'd worried about it. But you would too, if you'd spent so many hours of your life making something like that!
Anyway, Misha picks up his pen and goes, "So it's Jenny, right?" and I was like, "Yeah, but I was hoping you could make it out to Assbutt," and he goes, "Sure!"
Jenny, Hey Ass-butt, thanks for the world's greatest doll. Misha Collins
While he was writing that, I said, "And I was wondering, my sister wanted to ask you something, so can she just come in here and talk to you, or does she have to buy a ticket, or--" and he goes, "No, she can just come in to talk. Anyone can come in." And I was like, "Oh, okay, because I got the impression I had to buy a ticket before they would let me in," and he seemed confused and was like, "What? Of course not. Anyone can come in. There's like no one in here." And then a girl in line behind me (she had walked up without my noticing, but there was no one behind her) said, "There's a whole lot of people standing outside," and I said, "They probably think they have to buy tickets," and Misha goes, "What? They should just--" and then he called one of the Illumina people over and said, "Can you tell me what's going on with the line? Tell those people to come in!"
Then he turned back to me and said, "Tell your sister she can come and ask me anything." And I said, "Okay. It's something like, she's friends with someone who knows your wife, or something..." And Misha goes, "Really? What's her name?" And I said, "I don't know, that's why she--" but he cut me off with a very pointed look and said, "Well, that's not going to work. Go tell your sister to come talk to me." Like it was an order, heh. So I was like, "I'll do that. Thanks so much!" and I grabbed my autograph off the table. And he goes, "Thank you for the doll!"
The next thing I remember, I was standing outside the small signing room, so I can only conclude that I flew or floated out.
I am so pleased that Misha liked the Castiel doll! I was really worried that he wouldn't. I mean, I know that people make and give him stuff all the time, so he's used to it, but for some reason I was still concerned that it might seem weird. But he liked it! He said it was the best one he's ever seen! And I don't even care if he says that to everyone. The point is that he said it to me. So now I feel completely justified in how much time I spent making it, and I am SO glad I remade the doll from scratch. Everything about the second version is so much better than the first. I can actually imagine his politely horrified expression if I'd given him proto!Cas. See for yourself:
It's like Castiel with his retarded older step-cousin. (Whom he loves dearly.)
And I did tell my sister what he said about coming to talk to him, but the only other time we went into the Illumina signing room was to see the Stargate Universe guys, and Misha wasn't in there at the time, so she didn't ever get a chance to speak to him. Oh, well.
From there I went to the Marriott to pick up my Shatner photo, which I stuck in my tote alongside the Data doll and Misha photo and autograph, and then I figured since it was after 4:00 already I had the option of walking down to the Sheraton and slipping into the Next Generation panel late or staying in the Marriott and slipping into the True Blood panel late, so I chose to go into the True Blood panel, where Amy and Mama were.
Yikes, LJ is telling me the post is too long (again!), and I'm not even through Saturday yet! I haven't even met Brent Spiner and the Trueblood and Stargate guys or gone to the Jonathan Coulton concert! If you want to see
EVEN MOAR
click [ this link] for the rest of my report, including pictures of the True Blood guys and Brent with his doll, clips from the JoCo concert, Colin Ferguson's smokin body, and how David Blue became my lover. (Who'd want to miss that?)
After the Eureka panel, our small group of dedicated fans split up. Mama really wanted to go to a WKRP in Cincinatti panel, but I had no interest in a show that happened 150 years before I was born (okay, no interest in this show that happened 150 years before I was born*), and Amy wasn't really interested either even though it did air while she was alive (my sister is 150 years old). So while our mom went to stalk Howard Hesseman in the Hyatt, we went to a Star Trek: TNG panel in the Sheraton.
*Since I wrote this, I've watched four episodes of WKRP on Hulu. I like it.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Panel
Old people are cute.
We had pretty good seats when we first went inside and sat down, but while we were sitting there, a volunteer came over to us and told us to move down to the far end of the row, even though only a few other people came in. They filled up the rest of the row, and then the people who came in later all sat in the aisle seats (directly behind where we'd been sitting in the first place) and they didn't have to move down, so we ended up stuck behind a big speaker that was inconveniently placed in front of the screen so we couldn't see. But we could hear really well. And I could see Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden if I leaned onto the long-haired guy sitting beside me. Which I think he liked.
Here is a really terrible picture of Brent and Gates on screen behind the giant speaker. Amy had to lean far to her right to take it.
They both did a little dance around the table when they came out. It was cute. Brent and Gates are actually pretty good friends in real life (he's her son's godfather) and their senses of humor mesh really well, so it's fun to see them interracting with each other. I wasn't a big fan of Dr. Crusher on the series, but I really like Gates in real life. She's very funny and smart and entertaining. (And also a lot smaller than I expected!) She told us a funny story about a wardrobe malfunction she had on the way to some ST event. She was sharing a limo with Brent and Jonathan Frakes, and when she got in, all the buttons at the top of her dress and at the bottom of her dress burst open, so on the way there, Brent and Jonathan both climbed on top of her to help her button herself back up. While these two men were on top of her in the back of the limo, and they were all grunting and struggling with the dress, she happened to look up and could see the driver watching them in the rearview mirror. Heh.
Two of the other stories from the panel that I would normally have just typed here are actually both in the following clip. One is about a scar Brent got while they were filming the first time Dr. Crusher had to turn Data off in the series, and the other is about Gates' son. He grew up on the set of Star Trek and learned to walk on the bridge, but when she tells the story, she can't remember the word "bridge." She's like, that room... where we all sit... and drive? Anyway, it's cute, and the clip is only 5 minutes long. Watch!
Click to view"Nobody's filming this, are they? It's not going to be on Youtube, is it?"
Also, Brent is in a webseries on youtube called [Fresh Hell]. It's only got five very short episodes and some outtakes, but some of it is pretty funny. He talked about it very briefly in the panel and later made me promise I would watch it, so I watched it when I got home from D*C. And I have to say, I never knew how much I wanted to hear Brent Spiner talk about his penis until I watched episode four. :D
Meanwhile
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
My mom apparently enjoyed the WKRP in Cincinatti panel, though she didn't have much to say about it later except that she enjoyed it, and that Loni Anderson has clearly had work done.
Howard Hesseman and Loni Anderson.
After the panel, she stalked Howard on the escalator. Which I feel pretty sure she would deny, but I have the photographic evidence right here:
You can run, but you can't hide from middle-aged half-Japanese paparazzi.
And that goes for you too, old man superhero thing.
Amy and I had agreed to meet Mama back in the hotel room after our respective panels got over (around 6:30) because the next thing we wanted to do - the Buffy Horror Picture Show - wasn't supposed to start until 8:30. But when we left the Sheraton, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the Marriott and go ahead and buy my William Shatner photo op for the next day at 11:00AM, because in previous years, whenever I went to buy photo ops from Froggy photos right before those photos were supposed to happen, the lines were inevitably really long, and I always got nervous that I would miss the photo op. Plus the Misha Collins photo op time was from 10:15 to 11, so I wanted to make sure I could come straight from that to the Shatner op and not have to worry about standing in another line between the two. This turned out to be a good decision because when I went to buy my photo ops, the line was super short (compared to what I was used to) and I didn't feel hurried at all. I bought my Saturday Shat photo for $75, and I also went ahead and bought my Sunday True Blood photo (with Jim Parrack and Joe Mangina-low) for $55. And THEN we went back to our room in the Hyatt.
As soon as I got back to the room, I pulled off my facial hair and stretched my mouth open really wide. Mama was already in there watching DC*TV. They were replaying some of the panels from earlier in the day, in case you missed them, which I think is great. The Supernatural panel we skipped was on when Amy and I came in the room. It turns out that for some reason, the Daily Dragon had misreported that Misha wasn't going to be there, and so he actually was, although Jim Beaver wasn't. I was disappointed that I had missed it so that I could watch my mother and sister eat, but watching the entire thing on DC*TV wasn't too bad, and at least I could do that without my wig on.
I took off all my Ronon stuff and ate some potato chips while watching the SPN panel. Misha actually got one girl on stage so he could see her belly-dancing outfit better, and then he invited her to sit on his lap and use his microphone to ask a question. He kept her on his lap while everyone on the panel answered, even after she asked if she should get up. It was cute. You can watch them here:
"Whoa, whoa, flirting? There's no flirting going on here, we're just... there's a shortage of seating, is all."
Mark Sheppard is always fun in a panel, too. He's very funny, and I love the way he talks. In this panel, he was doodling on a piece of paper the entire time, even while he was answering questions. ADD much? Later Misha held it up so the camera could see and called it the scribblings of a mad man. Heh.
My mom was really surprised about Misha's voice - that it was a lot higher than she expected. But that's because he puts on a low one for Castiel. I knew to expect that because I've watched a lot of Misha's interviews, but it's still kind of funny.
After the SPN panel ended, DC*TV started playing the Next Gen panel that Amy and I had gone to, but we didn't watch the whole thing.
Data's head flops over to one side. It's how you can tell he's thinking about something.
Amy got on the phone with her husband Jamey for a few minutes, so I called my other sister Sara. Sara immediately told me to tell Amy to call Jamey because he hadn't heard from her since the day before and wasn't even sure she'd gotten to Atlanta okay. Whoops?
I was contemplating not going to the things we had planned that night because I kind of couldn't bear the thought of putting on all my Ronon stuff again - the wig and facial hair, especially - which I had already worn for about ten hours straight. But I didn't want to just change clothes and leave the hotel room without taking a shower first, because... I had just worn a wig for ten hours straight. My hair looked grosssss. But I didn't have time to take a shower if we were going to the Buffy and Doctor Horrible sing-alongs. Mama and Amy wanted me to put on my Captain Hammer shirt and go anyway, and Amy actually tried to get me to wear my groupie outfit and the Ronon wig and facial hair (crossover FTW?) but wearing the wig anyway would have defeated the purpose of changing clothes in the first place. But I wasn't tired or anything, and I didn't want to be lame and miss something, so I did put on my groupie shirt, and I just put my hair in pigtails and hoped no one would notice how awful I looked. (At least I still looked better than most of the zombies we saw.)
It was already around 8:30 by the time we left the room, and it occurred to us that going straight to the Buffy Horror Picture Show and then from there to the Doctor Horrible Sing-Along would mean no supper until after midnight. Which was doable, and we've certainly gone hungry at cons before (I usually lose three or four pounds at con, no lie), but we go to the BHPS every year, so we've seen it before several times, and it wouldn't be a big deal to miss it. Which is why we ended up going to the Peachtree Center foodcourt instead for some real food, and just planned to go to the Doctor Horrible thing(-along) after that.
Zombie Prom! Wait... Zombie Prom?
All we wanna do is eat your brains. (We're not unreasonable.)
We got food from a place in the food court called Farmer's Basket, which is basically very large portions of Southern-style sides and Chinese-style chicken. Yum! And sweet tea. I find that the older I get, the more I embrace sweet tea over carbonated drinks. I am probably turning into an old Southern biddy. (Old Southern Biddy is the name of my Dolly Parton cover band.) I got honey chicken, fried okra, and red potatoes at Farmer's Basket, but they gave me so much that I still had most of my chicken left over when I was full. I was sad to have to throw it away, but I didn't want to carry leftovers around with me for the rest of the night, and anyway we didn't have a fridge in the room.
While we were sitting in the food court eating, a very long line of zombies stumbled by our table. There were so many of them that I figured this was part of D*C's annual Zombie Walk, which I had always assumed took place entirely outside, like the parade. It was quite entertaining to watch them all go by, some of them wearing zombie costumes and some of them being actual zombies. Zombie cosplayers are the most dedicated, I think. They zombie it up at all times - not just by wearing the costume, but by actually limping around the con and groaning with bones protruding from their bodies and flaps of skin hanging off. One guy had an obviously broken neck and was dragging one leg. I think if I were ever turned into a real zombie, I would totally come to Dragon*Con just to socialize without people being suspicious of me. Until I ate them. (So... just like real life, then.)
After the Zombie Walk staggered out, we headed over to the Sheraton to stand in line for Doctor Horrible, which was supposed to start at ten. We didn't bother consulting the program guide or my paranoid color-coded schedule before we went because the Sheraton is where Doctor Horrible has taken place the last few times we went. It was about a two-block walk, and we encountered more zombies along the way. Some were dressed in formal attire. When we crossed the street to the Sheraton's front entrance, I happened to notice that the three of us were, in fact, the only non-zombies in the crowd. I turned to Mama and Amy and said, "Did we accidentally join the Zombie Walk?" and we all started laughing because there were literally dozens of walking dead people and no one else.
When we went inside the building, we walked over to the staircase up to the ballroom where they had held the sing-along in previous years. We were stopped behind a group of zombies at the bottom of the staircase for a minute, and while we were standing there, a bunch of (ten? fifteen?) soldier-looking people in all black came running down the stairs and aimed their fake guns at us and mimed shooting. All of the zombies started growling and reaching for the soldier guys, and some of the zombies fell down (from having been shot in the head, I guess), and LOTS of people were taking pictures. The three of us stood in the middle of all the zombies looking really confused, I'm sure. Mama and I started talking about how we probably had accidentally joined the Zombie Walk, but when we turned toward Amy to tell her this, we saw her from behind, the lone blonde girl in her blue Captain Hammer shirt, ascending the stairs entirely surrounded by a group of the walking dead! She was just following them as though she belonged. The image was so incongruous that Mama and I nearly had heart attacks laughing at her, and Mama asked me for the camera (which I had in my purse), but I was laughing so hard that by the time I managed to get it out, Amy was already at the top of the stairs getting in line.
At some point - and I don't remember this, but they say it happened - Amy and Mama asked someone if we were in the right place for the Doctor Horrible Sing-Along, and they were told that we were. So we lined up outside the ballroom with all the zombies. I remember thinking it was kind of odd that so many zombies and a voodoo priest wanted to see Doctor Horrible this year, but then telling myself that it wasn't really that odd, because it's a great show, right?
We were in line behind a couple of the soldier guys who were dressed all in black. Their uniforms had patches that said Umbrella Corporation. Amy and I asked one soldier guy what the Umbrella Corporation was, and he said it was the name of the company in Resident Evil, where all these people turned into zombies and the remaining guys had to fight them. And then the guy said something like, "but I guess they wouldn't need to if Captain Hammer was there!" and smiled at us. So naturally I was reassured that we were in the right place, because at least THIS guy was talking about Doctor Horrible.
I guess it was around ten when they started letting the line inside the ballroom. There were ropes that we had to zigzag through to get to the door, and zigzagging past so many zombie costumes started making us paranoid again that something wasn't right. I had been joking earlier that it would be really funny if we had accidentally gone to Zombie Prom instead of Doctor Horrible, and it WAS funny, but it was one of those things that's funny and then awkward and then funny again... and then awkward. We kept laughing and stopping and then laughing again. Before we got to the door into what looked suspiciously like a prom for zombies, I finally pulled my schedule out of my purse just to make certain the Sheraton was indeed the right place.
It wasn't. Obviously. The Doctor Horrible Sing-Along was at the Westin this year.
When I told my mom and sister, we laughed again because DUH OF COURSE WE WERE AT ZOMBIE PROM and then my mom was like, when we get to the head of the line, instead of going inside the door, let's just keep walking past the door. But Amy goes, "No! I stood in line for Zombie Prom for 45 minutes. I'm going in." Right on, sis! So we went in.
It was pretty dark in there, but you could still see all the zombies prowling around. As soon as we walked in, Amy saw one of her college students. The girl was pretty excited to see her teacher there. She was like, "I love you even more now!" and gave her a hug. Part of her zombieness rubbed off on Amy's shoulder. So we're watching for signs of my sister turning into a zombie now.
We walked to the middle of the room, and as a joke I said, well, let's dance! and then did my best dancing zombie impression. Amy joined in, and Mama took a picture of us. It was at least as fun as the sing-along would have been.
When she saw our mom taking a picture, another lady ran up and took our picture, too. Captain Hammer zombies FTW! (Also WTF?)
You can't really tell where we are in the picture, so for further proof that this was in fact Zombie Prom, Amy and I went around taking more pictures of [intentional] zombies:
I heard someone yell at these guys, "It's Zombie Prom, not Zombie Wedding!" As though they had ruined the whole thing.
This is what I call costume dedication. (Dead-ication?)
So much for protecting us.
We didn't actually stay at Zombie Prom very long, just long enough to have the Best Time Ever, and then we snuck out the back. Oh, and there's a TARDIS that they stick outside the ballroom every year which is great for photo ops, and we decided that we would come back and take pictures with it later, but we never did. Sadface. But we have pictures of it from previous years, so that's okay.
In the skywalk on our way back to the Hyatt.
When we got back to the room, Mama talked to my brother Brad on the phone about crashing at the hotel that night because he and his wife Natalie had gone to the Braves game and didn't feel like driving all the way home. Plus if they stayed with us, they could get up and watch the parade in the morning. So that's what they did. When they showed up, we told them about accidentally attending Zombie Prom while dressed as Captain Hammer groupies, which I have to say is probably my favorite D*C story ever. (We accidentally went to see Voltaire once, too, but that wasn't nearly as funny.) I'm so amused by it because this was my sixth Dragon*Con and I stopped feeling like a tourist after my second one, so this was the first time in a while that I actually felt like I didn't blend in there.
Since we just had the two beds, Brad slept on the floor. We tried going to sleep around 1:30 or so, but I kept thinking about Zombie Prom, and the way Amy looked being swept up in the wake of the zombies on the staircase, and I kept randomly giggling and keeping everyone else up. Also, the first thing I had to do the next morning was my Misha Collins photo op, followed by my Shatner photo op, and I was spectacularly nervous. I didn't fall asleep for a long time.
Saturday: Goodbye, Cas and Data!
Fly, my pretties.
The first thing I did on Saturday morning was take an anxiety pill. I call them my chill pills because they help me chillax when I'm nervous. Yeah, you heard me. CHILLAX. I said it. One of the side effects of these pills for me is euphoria, so it's always a pretty happy time when I take them. I didn't want to wear a costume on Saturday or Sunday because of photo ops - and since everyone clears out by like one or so on Monday, it's pretty useless to wear a costume on that day too - so on Saturday, I wore my t-shirt that looks like a tuxedo. Because I thought it would be nice to look fancy for my Misha and Shat photos, y/y?
Mama, Amy, Brad, and Nat all went to the parade at ten, but I actually left the room before they did and ran over to the Hilton for the Misha Collins photo op at 10:15. (The Illumina website said to show up early.) There was already a longish line, so I got in the back of it, and I think only a couple of other people came in after me. I had both my Castiel and Data dolls with me in a totebag because I wanted Cas in the photo with me and Misha, and I figured I would also give the dolls to Misha and Brent later at the Walk of Fame, and I didn't want to have to go back to the room first. So while I was waiting in the line, I went ahead and pulled the Castiel doll out of my bag and started fixing his hair and coat. The girl ahead of me in line saw him and we struck up a conversation. I don't remember her name, but she was nice. She had just come to D*C that morning and had been rushing around trying to register and everything before the photo op, and she was worried about her hair, but I told her it looked good. While our part of the line was still outside the photo room, the girl took a picture of my Cas doll, which I thought was kind of funny, and then another girl ahead of her in line also wanted a photo of the doll. So two other fans out there have photos of my Castiel! I think that's neat.
The Illumina photo room was set up in a different way from the way Froggy does it. For Froggy photos, almost the entire line waits in an anteroom while only the next two or three people can actually see the photos being taken, but for Illumina, everyone is in the same room and the backdrop you stand in front of is facing the line, so everyone still waiting in line can see you pose for your photo. I liked being able to see Misha the whole time I was waiting, but it made me even more nervous knowing that everyone would be able to see me. I calmed down a bit when I realized I was so close to the back of the line, but then the two girls who had taken photos of my Cas doll asked me to go in front of them in the line so that they could watch Misha's reaction to the doll. *panic attack* So of course I went in front of them, hoping really hard that he wouldn't think the doll thing was weird.
Oh, and also, when I moved up in line, a girl ahead of me saw the doll and then pointed at a big sign that said you couldn't give the celebs gifts during their photo ops. THANKS I KNOW. Obviously that's the kind of thing that I would check before trying to do it, geez. I did think it might be a little strange to have him hold the doll for our photo, take it back from him, and then give it to him later, but that was exactly what I planned to do. I sort of had this idea that I would let him know after our photo that I was going to give it to him later, but then, like a tool, I froze up and very nearly didn't say anything at all. Such is my way.
My conversation with Misha at this point was very short. When it was my turn, I walked up and shook his hand, and then I held out the doll and asked if he would hold it for our picture. He seemed to be in a pleasant mood, smiling and all, looking really attractive (such is his way). His eyebrows went up when he saw the doll, and he took it and sort of looked it over and said, "Wow, you made this?" And I said yes, and he sounded really impressed and said, "Look at the craftsmanship. Look at the eyes. That's great. It looks really good." As I was saying thank you, he stuffed doll!Cas into the crook of his arm and put his other arm around me for the photo.
Look At The Eyes is the name of my Billy Joel cover band.
Also: Castiel isn't made to be able to sit down like that. I think that's why he's turning away from the camera. He's just uncomfortable.
Misha smiled and handed the doll back to me when our picture was over and told me again that it looked good, and I thanked him for the picture. And ran away. Actually, I had to go back to a table we'd passed on the way into the room and get my purse and the tote with Data crammed in it. I forgot to watch the girls I had talked to in the line while they got their pictures made, but I was still fiddling with my stuff when they came to get their stuff from the table, and I think I said it was nice meeting them, and then I took off for the Marriott for my photo op/second date with Bill Shatner, who is my lover.
I ended up somewhere in the middle of the Shatner photo op line, which was a nice surprise because I'd expected to be at the very end again. While the line moved slowly forward, I started talking with two other women who were in line behind me. The reason I started talking to them is because they looked exactly alike. Which is dumb, because I grew up with a set of identical twins and it isn't anything special to me... when it's my sisters. But for some reason, when I see other people who look just alike, I find it neat. So I did the thing people do to twins all the time and said, "Are y'all sisters?" And they gave the standard answer in sync: "We're twins."
The twins were really super nice. One of them came across as "the smart one" and the other was "the funny one," which is how twins are always written, though I don't usually find it to be that way in real life. They were brunette and looked to be about forty-ish. This was their first convention, so they had a lot of questions, and I talked to them for a long time. I tried to tell them where the consuite was, but I was afraid they'd get totally lost trying to find it, so I showed them the maps in the pocket program guide. They asked me about some of the celebrities that I've met at D*C, but they didn't know anyone I named. So I asked them what shows they watched, thinking maybe I could name some celebs they would know, but it turned out that we had exactly zero in common besides the Shat. And they asked me if Harrison Ford ever came to cons. Heh. I said no, that he was probably working on films too steadily to have time for conventions, and they seemed disappointed. But they were fun to talk to, anyway.
For Illumina photos, you walk in and leave your stuff on a table and then go pick it back up after the picture. For Froggy photos, you hand your stuff to one of the helpers and they run across the room with it behind the backdrop and set it on the table you have to pass by on your way out. So when it got close to my turn, I handed my purse and tote with the dolls to a woman who carried it across the room for me. She was actually standing directly behind the backdrop when someone else had their picture made, and it struck me as really strange that this woman would probably have been in a LOT of people's photos if that backdrop hadn't been there. In this case, she would have been standing behind Shatner and holding my purse.
The [ last time] I had my photo made with Bill, I was grinning at him somewhat creepily and completely ignoring the camera. So I thought for this picture, it would be cute for him to be looking at me. When I walked up to him for the photo, we said hi to each other, and I asked him if he would look at me for the picture. And he seemed kind of confused and amused at the same time and said, "Let's look at the camera. You'll like it better!" which made me laugh. And as soon as they snapped the picture, Bill went on, "But I'll look at you now." And then he just turned and stared pleasantly at my face. Haha. I didn't know what to do with him looking at me like that, so I was just like, "Thank you!" and ran away. (But first we had sex.)
He's actually saying the word "better" here, and I'm laughing, which is why my eyes are in the process of disappearing.
As second dates go, I think it went rather well. And any time Captain Kirk (or Denny Crane) looks directly into your eyes for any length of time, that automatically counts as getting to at least second base, amiright? Anyway, it felt good. And that's all I'm going to say about it.
Oh, and there was a Parade.
One year I'm going to go to this.
So while I was fangirling all over Misha and Bill (they actually had to wipe their faces afterward), the rest of my family was watching the nerd parade. I didn't see any of the parade, but I'll post some of the pictures my mom and sister took of it:
They brought back Business Dragon! We loved this guy last year. From what I understand, he was one of many dragons leading the parade. It's hilarious to me that he is walking through the parade and doing business at the same time. What a busy dragon.
I thought this Hagrid was extremely Hagridy.
So wrong it's right.
Who knew [Don Cheadle] was at D*C this year?
Boxful of heroes.
What are these things? I've seen a ton of them around, but I have no idea who they are. We even took a picture of one last year.
Here is dirty Wolverine. He is turning away from the leopard tights in confusion and embarrassment.
So cute! They did the routine and everything!
Best. Fight scene. Ever. And Butterkwup's costume looks pretty great.
This storm trooper is too cool for school. He is the kind of storm trooper who, when you say you like his outfit, would say, "I don't wear outfits," and then look past you into the distance.
I don't know, but it's big and awesome.
Fellowship of the Sun. (I just typed Ring.)
I love this guy! If you look that much like Scotty, you can't not be him at cons. We took a pic with him last year.
OMG FRIENDSHIP IS TOTALLY MAGIC
If you crack her open, there is a one-eyed tentacle monster inside. Just FYI.
Captains Jack and John genderswap! ♥ We also saw a lot of female 11th Doctors.
Two Doctors in a Delorean? This is much more awesome than you think it is. (I love that Ten is driving.)
There were so many TARDISes (tardes? tards?) this year.
Should I be scared that I don't remember seeing this guy? OMG WHAT ARE THESE MARKS ON MY ARM
Star Wars Panel
Meh.
Brad and Natalie left Atlanta after the parade was over, and Amy and Mama went to stand in line for the 11:30 Star Wars panel. None of us, as far as I can remember, have ever been to a Star Wars panel at D*C (or anywhere else). I've always heard that you pretty much either align yourself with Star Wars or Star Trek, and never the twain shall meet. I don't know if that's true of everyone, but I'm definitely more of a Trek fan (although I've seen both Star Wars movies*). And the only Star Wars actors that have been to cons we've been to are Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), who shows up everywhere we go and hasn't yet convinced me that he's not stalking us, the guy who played young Anakin (Jake something?), and the guys who played C3PO and Jango Fett. But Carrie Fisher was at D*C this year, and Mama and Amy both really wanted to see her.
I, however, was much too busy sexing Bill Shatner at the time and couldn't be bothered.
*Just kidding, I know there were four Star Wars movies.
They took a few pictures on the way to the Star Wars panel.
Cute li'l Steampunk family. And like I always say, it's good to start them with guns early.
Amy and Mama were being the Nerd Herd from Chuck that day. Can you have a herd of two?
They ran into some other nerds (how can you not run into nerds at a sci-fi con?) and tried to take a picture, but some D*C volunteers made them disperse. For some reason.
Carrie Fisher has clearly been taking hairstyle tips from Peter Mayhew.
My mom said that Carrie was smoking during this panel. I didn't think that was allowed inside the hotels, but another fan told my mom that it was actually an electronic cigarette and the smoke she was exhaling was some kind of vapor. Which doesn't explain why the fire alarm went off during the panel, but then again, the fire alarm went off in the Marriott's Atrium Ballroom during a couple of other panels we went to as well, and no one was smoking in those. They never made us evacuate the room, though.
My mom also said that Peter Mayhew seemed to know what he was talking about every time he answered something, but that he talked reeeeeeeeeeally slowly. I think the sound just takes longer to leave his body because he is so tall.
Amy and Mama left the Star Wars panel early after they got their Carrie Fisher fix. They were only there for about twenty minutes or so. Amy stopped outside the ballroom to get a slice of pizza, and then the two of them joined me in the Dollhouse panel line at the Westin, where I had been texting with my friend Zach and trying to make notes in my notebook about what we'd done so far at D*C. (I only got as far as Thursday.) This was the only time during the con that I wrote anything down! I am a bad reporter.
Dollhouse Panel
I *love* Eliza and Tahmoh. I want to call them Elahmoh. Or Penikushku.
Since I had been sitting in the Dollhouse line for over an hour, we ended up with really good seats for the panel. And since we had really good seats for the panel, we ended up taking a lot of pictures.
These people are so pretty.
I really enjoyed this panel because Tahmoh and Eliza are so cute together and have such energy. Tahmoh actually talked about the last Dollhouse panel he did a couple years ago where he was severely hungover and ended the panel early, and I was like, I remember that! But this wasn't anything like that one. They both seemed happy and like they really did want to talk about the show.
Tahmoh talked a little bit about how it was to walk on set the first time and see Joss and Eliza being all buddy-buddy with each other while he was the awkward new guy, and then he flubbed his first line and was so embarrassed. He accidentally called the Dollhouse the Wallhouse, and they were like, CUT! Did you just say... Wallhouse? Heh. He actually told this story last time, too, so on my autograph he wrote, "Welcome to the Wallhouse." But it was funnier this time with Eliza sitting there.
Eliza talked about becoming an official citizen of Albania, and how they're making a documentary about it. Which was kind of neat. I had no idea her parents were from there.
My favorite part of the panel was probably when someone asked them what other character from Dollhouse they would want to play if they had to switch parts, and Tahmoh started talking about how badly he wanted to be a doll. He said he actually filmed himself auditioning to be a doll even though he was already Paul on the show, and he sent the tape to Joss and Eliza. And Eliza said it wasn't very good, haha. You can see both of their answers to that question [here on Youtube]. It segues into a love-fest over Olivia Williams and Alan Tudyk.
Like I said, I enjoyed this panel a lot, but I can't really think of anything that stands out about it besides the fact that Tahmoh and Eliza are pretty great. [This person] has uploaded several videos of Eliza from D*C this year, including a lot of the Dollhouse panel if you want to see more.
There was a Supernatural panel right after this one, and I was concerned that we might not make it in because the SPN lines were pretty long all con (this was the first year D*C had any guests from Supernatural), so I left the Dollhouse panel running. I grabbed another Daily Dragon from the information booth on the way out of the Westin. Oh, and we ran into Julie - my sister Sara's ex-roommate; she came as Dexter last year - for a minute before racing to the Marriott.
Supernatural Panel
Now I kind of want to ship Castiel/Ellen. Is that weird?
Jim Beaver wasn't at this panel either, which was a little disappointing, but I did get to see him the next day. This one was just Samantha Ferris (Ellen), Misha Collins (Castiel), and Julie McNiven (Anna). When Misha came out, he brought with him a Castiel puppet that a fan had made and given to him. In [this clip], you can see him put it together and get a guy to come onstage to do a little puppeteering during the Q&A. It was pretty cute.
I wouldn't have thought to make a puppet. Kind of a neat idea, although what do you do with it when you get home?
I think it was this panel in which the moderator said Colin Ferguson had submitted a question for Julie McNiven. It was something like, why did you pour tequila on me last night? Ha. It was apparently an accident. She'd been pretending she was going to pour it on him and someone hit her hand, so she did actually spill it. She seemed pretty embarrassed.
Speaking of embarrassing! Someone asked the panel about embarrassing moments from the set of Supernatural, and Misha told a horrible story about food poisoning. It's not even funny! It's just sad. Definitely something I would have kept to myself, but I guess he did warn us that it was disgusting first. Here is what he told us:
Yeah, I just spent four hours on Youtube. I found this clip within the first five minutes, but I can't. stop. watching Misha. at conventions.
I liked Samantha's embarrassing moment. No one told her that she shouldn't point her shotgun at anyone (it wasn't loaded, and she wasn't thinking), so she was gesturing around a lot with it on set and people were all diving out of the way and she had no idea that it was because of her. So she was looking around for the reason why Jared and Jensen were ducking.
Misha also said at one point that when the directors let the actors interpret the scene whatever way they want to, he likes to do a couple of takes with his penis visible. This is very similar to something Colin Ferguson said in a Friday panel. What's the deal, guys? And more importantly, where is this footage? Also, someone asked him to talk about NPR because he used to work there. She actually said, "Talk nerdy to me," so he started listing off the names of some people from NPR in a sexy voice. Now that I think about it, Misha's actually kind of perverted during panels. He even made a reference to Julie's hair not being red everywhere wink wink nudge nudge.
The fire alarm went off again during this panel. Samantha was like, seriously? But Misha was all, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you all get into heaven." :)
Misha's not feeling it. :(
Something I've noticed during a lot of D*C panels is that everyone asks the same questions over and over. One of them is "If you could play any character on the show other than your character, who would it be?" It's a fun question I guess, and I thought Tahmoh's answer in the Dollhouse panel was funny, but I get tired of hearing that same question in every. panel. for four. days straight. In this one, Misha said he'd play young Mary, but he'd play her more feminine. Samantha said she'd play Ash. SPN genderswap! ♥
Can I just say, I love Samantha Ferris? She seems great! Like, just a fun person to talk to. I really liked Ellen on the show, too, but Samantha is much brighter than her character. By which I mean happier in general, not necessarily smarter. She was pretty funny, too. And I'll be honest; I have a thing for busty women. Did Ellen and Castiel ever have scenes together on SPN? I want them to now.
This entire panel has been uploaded to youtube in four parts, beginning [here].
Amy got up and left the SPN panel after a few minutes of it because she wanted to go ahead and get in line for the True Blood panel that was happening at 4:00 and she doesn't watch SPN anyway. Mama was planning to join her after this panel got over, but my plan was to go to another ST:TNG panel at the Sheraton (this time with Wil Wheaton). But at the end of the Supernatural panel, Misha Collins reminded everyone that they were doing autographs at the Hilton and invited everyone to come speak to them in person, and that reminded me that I had two photos waiting to be picked up, and I decided that I would rather get my photos and give Misha his doll than go to another TNG panel. Besides, I was going to see Wil Wheaton the next day in a Eureka panel. SO when we left the SPN panel, instead of going to the Sheraton for Wil, I went to the Hilton for more Misha.
Hey, Ass-butt!
"This is the best Castiel doll I have ever seen."
The first thing I did in the Hilton was go find my Misha picture, which I stuck in the doll tote I was carrying around. Then I walked over to the Walk of Fame rooms. I think I mentioned earlier that the people being represented by Illumina were in a small room near the Walk of Fame instead of being in the room with everyone else, which may be one reason Misha felt like he had to tell everyone to come see them; the tiny room they were in felt very exclusive. In fact, I thought I had to buy a ticket to enter at all. You actually buy autograph tickets in the room next door, where they had these long queues set up. At the end of the queue is the table where you buy the autograph and they give you a ticket, and then you take the ticket into the little room where the actors are sitting. But there's a person guarding the door to that room who won't let you in without the password and secret handshake. Okay not really. But they do ask you why you want to go in, which makes it seem like you have to have a ticket before you can even speak to these people.
To be honest, I wasn't planning to buy Misha's autograph. My plan was to go in and speak to him at his table and give him the doll. I already had proof that I had met him in the photo we took together. But when I got to the signing room and saw that it was guarded, I decided to buy an autograph ticket because I thought that was the only way I could go inside, and anyway, autographs at D*C are usually only $25 or $30. OH WAIT. UNLESS IT'S ILLUMINA. Misha's signature was $50, so with the photo, I ended up spending $110 on him. *dies a little*
I asked one of the Illumina people (can I call them the Illuminati? Would that be wrong?) where I was supposed to go to buy the autograph, so they pointed me at the room with the super long line. While I was waiting in line, a woman came in shouting, "Is anyone in here waiting on Misha Collins? Who wants a Misha Collins autograph?" And I was going, "Me, me! I do!" except that I didn't have a ticket yet. Some people were stepping out of the line and going up to the front, and... it was a very confusing time for me! I had no idea what was going on, if I was going to miss him because I hadn't bought my ticket in time, or what. When I finally got to the front and spent my money *clutches heart* and got my ticket - and the 8x10 photo of Misha for him to sign - I ran out after the other people who had bought Misha tickets. The person guarding the door to the other room wanted to know why I was going in, and I said I wanted Misha's autograph and showed my ticket. So they let me in, but not before making me feel extremely judged.
I think, and I'm not sure so don't quote me, that the problem was that so many people were there for Amanda Tapping's autograph that the signing room would have been too crowded to let her line start at her table, so the Illumina people were keeping Amanda's line in the other room and letting a few go in at a time to keep the place from getting too crowded. But they were letting in the other actors' fans at the normal pace, which was why they were periodically going into the line room and asking if anyone was there to see other actors. So if you were there, for instance, to see Misha, you wouldn't have to wait in Amanda's line; you could just go in. But I didn't get that until afterwards, so the whole thing just seemed confusing and weird.
Misha was sitting at the table farthest away from the door to the room. He had some people in his line when I went in, but not many, maybe 7 or 8. One other girl and her dad came in after me. She was getting an autograph for her friend. I let them go in front of me because I was pretty nervous, and if there's ever someone waiting behind me to do something, I always feel really rushed. So I was the last one in line. And I think it's completely natural to eavesdrop on the people in front of you in autograph lines, so that's exactly what I did. Misha was being very friendly, asking people what their costumes were and stuff. The group ahead of the girl I'd let in front of me invited Misha to something, and he said he would go, which I thought was cool. I don't remember what it was though, an art show or something. And then the girl ahead of me went. And then it was my turn.
When I walked up, I gave the volunteer woman sitting with him my ticket. (He was still talking to the other girl while I did this.) She asked my name and wrote it down on a little piece of paper so that he wouldn't misspell it on the autograph. I've noticed that a lot of celebrities have their volunteers do this for them. I told her it was Jenny and spelled it out loud, even though every time I meet someone, I introduce myself as Jen. For some reason, "Jen" is harder to understand at first hearing than "Jenny" is.
ANYway, so I set the 8x10 down in front of Misha when the other girl walked away, and I said, "Hi, I'm Jenny. I had my picture taken with you this morning." Because that's not dorky to point out at all. And he nodded and said, "I remember. I remember the doll."
I was actually holding the doll when I started talking to him, so I held it out and said something like, "I wanted you to have it. I was going to give it to you earlier, but they wouldn't let us give you gifts during your photo op." He had taken the doll and was admiring it, but he looked up when I said that and went, "Really?" like he wasn't pleased that they would restrict us like that (although I find it understandable). Or maybe he didn't believe me because other people had given him stuff during his photo. But then he was like, "Well, I think it's amazing." So of course I thanked him, and he was still looking at it, like lifting up the coat and looking under it and stuff. And he was shaking his head like he couldn't believe it, and then he looked right into my eyes and said sincerely,
"I have to be honest, this is the best Castiel doll I have ever seen. Look at all the detail."
Then I launched myself to the moon for about three seconds.
So the volunteer lady goes, "You made this?" and I said, "Yeah, I crocheted it. While I watched Supernatural." *cheesy grin at Misha* (I do crochet in front of the TV, but I don't remember what I watched while I made Castiel. Probably ST:TNG.) And Misha showed the volunteer the doll and said, "She even got the--" and then turned back to me holding the coat open and finished, "You even got the collar!" and pointed at the little shirt collar, which I'd had to sew on separately.
Since he was holding the trench coat open, I said, "The coat comes off. The trench coat, not the black one." And he started pulling on the sleeve, going, "It comes off?" like he wanted to pull it off right then, and I was like, "Yeah, you can take it off. Just the trench coat, though. The other one is sewn on." And he stopped pulling on it and looked at me again and said, "This is so good."
Then I said, "You have a child, right? A really young one?" and he said, "Yeah, my kid's going to love this." And then he went to lay the doll on the table, so I said, "It stands up." And he goes, "Oh, yeah, because it's weighted, right?" and he starts trying to stand him up, and I said, "Yeah, his hands and feet and butt are beany," but Misha couldn't get the doll to stand - it kept falling over - so he, like, starts smashing the doll's legs against the table, haha, and he goes, "I love that he stands up!" while he's clearly not standing up. So I took the doll and stood him up on the table.
Right when I let go of the doll, a woman came back behind the table and gave Misha a drink - it looked like maybe a rum and coke? Or Jack and coke. Something mixed with coke, anyway, with a lime on the side of the cup - and he spoke to her for a minute about paying. It was $27, and I'm assuming - hoping - that the $27 was for more than just his drink and the drink he bought for the volunteer, because otherwise, damn. And he set his drink on the table while he paid, but it was right in front of the doll standing there, and I got nervous that the doll would fall forward into the drink and be ruined, so I was like, "Um, this is an accident waiting to happen..." and when the lady walked away, Misha looked down at the doll to see what would happen. And it did fall, but it fell backward instead of forward onto the drink - *phew* - and he looked at me like he thought it was funny that I'd worried about it. But you would too, if you'd spent so many hours of your life making something like that!
Anyway, Misha picks up his pen and goes, "So it's Jenny, right?" and I was like, "Yeah, but I was hoping you could make it out to Assbutt," and he goes, "Sure!"
Jenny, Hey Ass-butt, thanks for the world's greatest doll. Misha Collins
While he was writing that, I said, "And I was wondering, my sister wanted to ask you something, so can she just come in here and talk to you, or does she have to buy a ticket, or--" and he goes, "No, she can just come in to talk. Anyone can come in." And I was like, "Oh, okay, because I got the impression I had to buy a ticket before they would let me in," and he seemed confused and was like, "What? Of course not. Anyone can come in. There's like no one in here." And then a girl in line behind me (she had walked up without my noticing, but there was no one behind her) said, "There's a whole lot of people standing outside," and I said, "They probably think they have to buy tickets," and Misha goes, "What? They should just--" and then he called one of the Illumina people over and said, "Can you tell me what's going on with the line? Tell those people to come in!"
Then he turned back to me and said, "Tell your sister she can come and ask me anything." And I said, "Okay. It's something like, she's friends with someone who knows your wife, or something..." And Misha goes, "Really? What's her name?" And I said, "I don't know, that's why she--" but he cut me off with a very pointed look and said, "Well, that's not going to work. Go tell your sister to come talk to me." Like it was an order, heh. So I was like, "I'll do that. Thanks so much!" and I grabbed my autograph off the table. And he goes, "Thank you for the doll!"
The next thing I remember, I was standing outside the small signing room, so I can only conclude that I flew or floated out.
I am so pleased that Misha liked the Castiel doll! I was really worried that he wouldn't. I mean, I know that people make and give him stuff all the time, so he's used to it, but for some reason I was still concerned that it might seem weird. But he liked it! He said it was the best one he's ever seen! And I don't even care if he says that to everyone. The point is that he said it to me. So now I feel completely justified in how much time I spent making it, and I am SO glad I remade the doll from scratch. Everything about the second version is so much better than the first. I can actually imagine his politely horrified expression if I'd given him proto!Cas. See for yourself:
It's like Castiel with his retarded older step-cousin. (Whom he loves dearly.)
And I did tell my sister what he said about coming to talk to him, but the only other time we went into the Illumina signing room was to see the Stargate Universe guys, and Misha wasn't in there at the time, so she didn't ever get a chance to speak to him. Oh, well.
From there I went to the Marriott to pick up my Shatner photo, which I stuck in my tote alongside the Data doll and Misha photo and autograph, and then I figured since it was after 4:00 already I had the option of walking down to the Sheraton and slipping into the Next Generation panel late or staying in the Marriott and slipping into the True Blood panel late, so I chose to go into the True Blood panel, where Amy and Mama were.
Yikes, LJ is telling me the post is too long (again!), and I'm not even through Saturday yet! I haven't even met Brent Spiner and the Trueblood and Stargate guys or gone to the Jonathan Coulton concert! If you want to see
EVEN MOAR
click [ this link] for the rest of my report, including pictures of the True Blood guys and Brent with his doll, clips from the JoCo concert, Colin Ferguson's smokin body, and how David Blue became my lover. (Who'd want to miss that?)