The Los Angeles Room
or
The Lost Weekend of the Daleks
or
AND THE PLOT TWIST IS YOU'RE ADOPTED!
The following is presented in a semi-linear format. Some of this shit is hard to remember in sequence, y'know? And if this is even half the events I witnessed, i'll be lucky I remembered it all - there was SO MUCH.
I miss the Los Angeles room greatly. I know a lot of people hated the shit out of the Wilshire, but I loved it. Call me sentimental, but I genuinely loved that place. Especially the Los Angeles room. I miss the Los Angeles room greatly. But I suppose i'd best start from the beginning in regards to that.
Day Zero
I boarded the airplane excitedly. It was the first i'd ever been on. IT WAS FUCKING TERRIFYING at first. Then it got all awesome when I started being above the clouds. HEY CLOUDS GUESS WHO IS MY BITCH I BET ALL OF MY STAR WARS GUYS THAT IT IS YOU. It was beautiful. How any being could see flight as anything but miraculous is a mystery to me. (And one cloud looked like Galactus. For serial.)
I got in and immediately saw a crowd of RBers. Scott Page-Pagter was there, being charming at everybody. Eventually I nipped off with Chris (who is a gentleman and a scholar), Jesse (who is Kevin Smith), and our collective folks to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Seems the RBers migrated there with Scott. We went in and said hi to them. Chris introduced ME along with him and Jesse, prompting Terri (Wyndstorm, who I wish I talked to more because she seemed like a nice lady) and Scott to look at eachother like "who the fuck is this kid and why does he have such great hair?", so I naturally had to hang a lamp on it and ask "Why the hell am *I* being introduced? I haven't actually *done* anything!" Also, due to some huge catering order, the food took for fucking ever to arrive. We suspected Richard Genile was out there somewhere with pizzas going into his mouth like a conveyor belt.
A bit later, we nipped off to check out the party that was apparently happening. Fans were being kicked out. Chris was greatly displeased by this turn of events. He went and had assorted words with Maureen and Myke. The words with Myke started off angry and by the end were downright polite. Eventually we were let in, it seemed. Then eventually I was carded by a waitress. OH LOOK AT ME I'M GOING TO ENFORCE THE LAW AND KICK YOU OUT. But on the bright side, I changed into my Beevor Jr. cosplay and snapped pictures when the cosplayers came down and ASJ hung with them. AND Chris came out a bit later and introduced me to Alycia. She was very nice. When I went up the escalator to go see Spy or some shit (it was a packed night, okay?) I saw Kelson Henderson. I yelled, "KELSON HENDERSON YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!". He seemed amused. He saw my SPD jacket and was all, "Heyyyyyy, SPD fan." I cracked up when Benta came down. People were taking pictures of him while he WAS NOT EVEN DOING ANYTHING. He was just STANDING there being all ungh i'm mysterrrrous and people ate it the fuck up.
Eventually, the ID waitress disappeared and I got in. It was magical. It was NIGHT ZERO. I met the SPD folks first. I told Greg Aronowitz (who, for the record, is a fucking superhero) I was a fan of "the good bits" of SPD. He then introduced me to Monica, saying "Hey, Monica! We have a fan!" She came over, very smiley. "Of the non sucky bits.", Greg continued. I specified not the non sucky bits, the GOOD bits. One sounds nicer. Monica's smile had turned to a sort of look of "I might be offended but i'm not quite sure". "What do you mean by 'the good bits'?" she asked. "The parts with all the characterization and plot, like the early episodes." Her smile returned and she seemed pleased with the answer, which left me relieved because I was fucking convinced for a minute i'd offended Monica and the con hadn't even STARTED yet. Matt came in with his publicist (I didn't know this at the time). When I saw her with him, I asked if she was his wife. She laughed a bit. "No, i'm his publicist." "They're the same job!"
A bit later, as i'm sure all of you lot know, the food fight broke out (after Narv came in and was instantly crowded around). I'll relay THAT as best as I can in order:
James dumps bottle of water/vodka on Alycia
James tosses platter of food at Monica, ruining her frankly adorable Muppets shirt. (And staining my SPD jacket, but...)
Jules points out to Narv he missed the opportunity to yell "FOOD FIGHT!"
Narv laments this fact.
Now, a bit later I sat down and hung with Latham and Emma. Some of this isn't in exact sequential order because that bit WAS kind of a blur. They were pretty awesome. After some of the stories i'd heard, I was a little bit surprised by how nice Emma is, and Latham is just good old fashioned cool. She and Latham hadn't seen eachother in years, so they were naturally super chummy. They told me about how during the filming of A Star is Torn, they did a cut of the Patiently music video with Latham in Mesogog make-up singing along. We talked a bit about actors in New Zealand, and I mentioned Latham's roles on Xena, including the bit where Xena killed him. Emma called Xena a bitch, which kind of made my night, along with Latham vowing to kick Bandai of America's asses after how they messed up the Mesogog figure (although apparently hearing about that killed Latham's buzz). Emma also showed off her outfit, which she called her maternity dress (and causing her to claim to be pregnant with Mesobabies). I later brought up how my jacket had the shittiest pockets ever. You could fit like, a baby carrot in there at most. She asked if it was an ORGANIC baby carrot, to which I replied of course. This lead to us discussing how she'd won that PETA award. Apparently they never actually gave her anything for that, although I suggested they should have sent her adorable endangered animals. A bit later, Alycia sat down aswell. She saw the jacket and seemed impressed. "So, SPD's pretty much your favorite season?" "Yeah, I suppose." Emma and Latham then got on me a bit. I told them that, hey, I never said I didn't love DinoThunder. Emma said that, hey, i'm not wearing a DinoThunder jacket though. I brought up that there weren't really DT jackets, but she wasn't having that. An even further bit later (yeah, i'm using a bit later a lot, but bear with me - most of Day Zero was a fucking blur for me >_>) Latham started playing around with his phone. He started spinning it about, and someone suggested it was the spin the bottle botttle. It first landed on a completely unaware Jesse (he was talking to Jules or somebody), prompting Latham to go "Mmmm...sexy...", which sent everyone into Laughterland, Germany. When it landed on ME, Alycia and Emma kept egging me on. I told them it would take a lot more peer pressure than that, and Alycia said that they were the peer pressure GANG. I got up and walked about slightly after that when I saw a bit of a crowd gathering elsewheres. Apparently Jason Napier and Tom Hern had showed up! They weren't actually guests, but just showed up to say hi, it seemed. Latham introduced me to Tom Hern ("This is Ryland, he knows things."), who is ridiculously 70s cool. He shook my hand and it turned into a weird magical secret handshake. Napier seemed pretty cool, although I felt a bit sorry for Mo that he was there when she wasn't.(Maybe they'll both meet at a The Tribe con or something, eh? Or maybe the much talked of PMC2). Firass and Melanie dropped by soon after. Firass was seemingly wasted the whole time, but an affable sort of wasted. Jules or Jesse, somebody with a J flavored name put a sign on his back reading "I'm Harry Potter", which he seemed to get a kick out of. Chris Violette showed up too, wearing an awesome hat and looking kind of like a hippie. Later, Jesse and I escorted Jules to her room when I saw her shirt had been stained by the food fight (keep in mind I was unaware mine had been stained at the time). She kept wanting to wash it, but I insisted they were memory stains. Also: JESUS CHRIST MY FEET WERE SO BLISTERED.
Randomass assorted memories I could not place:
I met Zeltrax and Keith Hayward. Both were nice guys, although I was a bit mystified by Keith calling me THE Impy. Apparently i'm important!
Someone offered Matt toast so he could do the Buttery thing at a panel. I pointed out to him he could probably get anything he wanted from these people. "Yeah, within the realm of bread products."
Walking by Monica and Matt, and Monica thinking i'd overheard something incriminating she said. I did not actually hear this, but for the sake of being interesting, let's say she murdered a bunch of homeless people in New Zealand.
I never actually saw this, but loads of people pointed out to me that James Macluran and Ria Vandervis went outside and then came back out a bit later with their hair all messed up >_>
Day 1:
RING RING RING RING RING RING WAKE UP WAKE UP IT IS MORNING NOW.
I was in a state of disbelief. Had last night actually happened? I mean - I fucking hung out with PR alumni, rode an airplane, and killed a man with my bare hands. Upon seeing Spy later, I discovered only the last part had been a dream.
I got dressed in my Beevor, Jr. cosplay. I think I used a bit too much hair gel. I came down and saw the volunteer staff gathering and (although ignorant to it at the moment) met Lezly, a charming and very pancake centric woman from Mexico. Tyler eventually pointed out to me the back of my jacket was covered in shrimp and shit. CURSE YOU, MACLURAN! I managed to clean it off, but...
I later popped off with Chris, Rangercast!Tyler, Jesse, and Jesse's folks for breakfest. Jesse showed me his TF prop, one of the prison mutants which I thought to be neat. I got my script for the MSTing, my lines all highlighted. The Herndons paid for breakfest, which was phoenomenally nice of them. Tyler, Chris, Jesse, and I got to the lobby shortly afterwards and saw the masses beginning to convene.
MMCorp was buzzing about, putting finishing touches on things and whatnot. Waiting with the other fans was fun. I finally realized the fellow i'd seen in the Pink and Yellow MMPR shirt was, in fact, JEDI. Jedi (also known as Matt) is, as you are no doubt aware by now, America's Swedish Bad Boy. Seriously, EVERYBODY fucking loved him. He event met Joe Flannigan at the airport. I gotta say - when registration opened? Getting that fucking badge was a euphoric moment. Later while sitting with Chris and Jesse, Ray came up to us. After introducing ourselves, Ray said "Wow, two legends. And a legend in training." Oh, and meeting Eric was cool. He's a good dude. Bit later, Chris, Jesse, and I popped into Ray's suite. It was pretty neat - Ray even did the Juice Bar pose. CoN actually popped into the DVD player the pilot episode of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. It was so hardcore mediocre - hopefully, it was just something to show potential investors or whatevs. The best bit was at the beginning, with the PSA that essentially amounted to "I'm Kamen Rider Dragon Knight - DON'T FUCKING DO DRUGS, OKAY?" When we came back down, there were some people from a booth for reading comprehension or something across from the Pacific Ballroom, and they were complete cunts. They were reading the Power Morphicon website and cracking the fuck up. I'M GLAD WE ENTERTAIN YOU SO. Seriously, direct quote "Power Morphicon weapons policy...BWAHAHAHAHA.". Punk bitches.
The actual hours of the con drew near. The cast members came into the Pacific Ballroom to much applause. Then - and this was the cutest goddamn thing i've ever seen - some mom lady came in with her little kid dressed in an NS Red halloween costume, to even GRANDER applause. Bravo, Shanekid, bravo. The fans convened in greater and greater numbers. I met a charming young lady named Marisa in remarkably wellmade Pink Mystic Force cosplay while waiting in line, and later met her boyfriend Jake. They were pretty cool. We waited in line (or, more descriptively, a somewhat line like mob) for what felt like ages. At last we were admitted entrance to the holy land of Morphicon.
The opening ceremony was nice. The bit with the Make-a-Wish kid was adorable. I loved the Bandai presentation for wholly inappropriate reasons. I mean, those guys were SHILLS. Like, Primo-big shills. And one of them looked UNNERVINGLY like Douglas Adams. They unveiled, with MUCH undeserved build up, the Mind-I MEAN MISSION Control helmet, which looks like shit. Seriously, I doubt it would even fit the heads of half the people who were in the room. I asked them what the rationale behind remolding the Drivemax Megazord was, and got...corporate nonanswers, predominantly. They were DOLING those out. They also passed about a clipboard and had us put down our email addresses and what not. Apparently it will be "worth it".
When I came out of that, I saw that Tony Oliver - yes, Tony Jeebus' Namesake Oliver - was interviewing cosplayers. NEAT. I took a picture with Jewel (who seemed like a nice girl, I ought to have spoken to her more) a bit later, around the same time I noticed that holy crap it was time for the Voice Acting panel. I got in as quick as I could.
The voice acting panel kicked ass. Neil Kaplan is clearly anything but new to conventions, as he did it MASTERFULLY. Kelson and Latham were great too, but damn - Neil ACED that shit. He told us stories of how he's played Huttese characters and had to SPEAK in Huttese, and did everyone's favorite bit: "Hawkmon, digivolve to...OPTIMUS PRIME." He also talked about how Diabolico was different from a lot of the villains he's done the voice for in that Diabolico was actually socially redeemable. Latham talked about how when trying to figure out how to do Mesogog's voice, he rented loads of dinosaur movies and couldn't figure anything out. But he finally figured it out after watching his cat hissing at another cat. Kelson spoke of how the Norg voice is hard to do sans suit. Hopefully someone got that thing recorded, because damn that was a great way to start off the con proper. Plus, it was in the Los Angeles room.
After that I hit up the dealers room and was blown the hell away by the props table. They had fucking everything. Cog masks, prop morphers, power coins, Ryan's diary, the beetle forms of the Beetleborgs, the VTs from VR Troopers, Psycho Red, and SO MUCH MORE. By Day 2 they even had ALPHA. There was also a table which had replicas of the Power Sword and Dragon Dagger - very cool. They had a lot of foreign editions of MMPR toys, including german versions of the talking rangers. The last table had mostly just regular toys, not particularly special >_>. But on the OTHER side of the room? Meet and greet, bitches! I got Neil Kaplan's autograph on my badge. It owned. I also got Matt Austin on the phone with Frannie.
I came in on the Mystic Force panel super duper late. Sat down next to what I thought at first to be just some lady. Firass seemed to be the exact opposite of Nick - dude was friendly, cool, and funny. After it ended, I found out that the some lady I sat next to was JACKIE FUCKING MARCHAND. Yes, I had just sat down next to someone who had an impossibly huge impact on my childhood and not even known it. Wacky.
The Pretty and Powerful panel and the Myster?ous concert were scheduled at the same time. So Pretty and Powerful was fucking packed. It was kind of awkward at first - no one really had questions as such for the most part. There wasn't a chair for Alycia at first either, so she had to make due with Emma's lap for a bit. There was this one guy with his kids in a blue shirt and sunglasses who seemed like a total prick. I asked Rhoda Montemayor what exactly a quid is (same thing as a pound, apparently). When Melanie talked about her projects, she mentioned her failed pilot. I instantly chimed in, "Is that the 'Secretary' one?" She said that it was and then looked at me with an odd mixture of being impressed and being startled. At one point somebody asked the girls to do their morphs. Emma had totally forgotten hers (and did it with Lothos). Melanie couldn't do it without Firass. SPEAKING of Firass, he evidently had Morphicon Kid ask if anyone on the panel was single. And then later had him ask to see their muffs, which I don't *think* got a response. At the end, I told Monica I was sad I couldn't see Labou because it was scheduled at the same time as the trial run for the MSTing. She asked why, and I explained how Labou was running concurrently to our trial run. She said if we showed up to Labou, she'd come to the MSTing. We decided we could go without a trial run and elected to go to Labou later on.
Next was the Trivia Contest. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Celestial Fury was pretty good. Labou was a lot better. I love the idea of it, in that - this isn't just a regular movie. It is SPECIFICALLY an eighties kids movie. And it hits every 80s kids movie note it needs to, right down to the wealthy-but-clinically-retarded land developers who want to hurt the environment, the plucky children one or more of whom must learn a life lesson, some kind of magic or super technology, and Monica May (fact: Monica May is in every single shot of The Goonies). Unfortunately, I couldn't stay and see all of it, as I was needed for MSTy stuff.
Jesse and I, while we waited for Chris sort of held an impromptu panel for like an hour. Monica May never showed and I fucked up half my cues. You can listen to it via the Rangercast contraption. After that, Jesse and I hung out a little with Lezly, who kept insisting on either going clubbing or eating pancakes. I hit the hot tub shortly after that, and talked with Jewel and Ken (or Cam, as most people were calling him) for a while. We all tried explaining our mutual love of PR to some other guy at the hot tub, who didn't entirely get it. I went into the pool a bit later and ended up realizing that Jesus Christ it was like 1:38 in the morning.
Day 2:
Woke up earlyish. Caught breakfest with Chris, a croissant and Crush grape soda (which he paid for - seriously, people love buying me stuff, it's awesome). We waited a bit before the con doors opened. I talked to Frannie a bit and then did a merry jig for Lezly (she seemed morose), who then seemed to be quite enamored with me for the rest of the con. Shortly afterwards, we went off to Conventionland for the MMPR panel which was impossibly great. I feel I shouldn't put in too much about the panels because most of them will be availible in full, but god - the MMPR panel was so great. I honestly never thought Austin St. John would be that funny. I still suspect he doesn't even know what that Bluetooth is for, though and that he got it in a box of cracker jacks. My head was fucking pounding for a lot of the day afterwards - i'd sat right near the speakers.
I skipped out on the stunts show to go to the Dealers' Room. Chris and Jesse were hanging about with Jackie at the Props Table - they'd found Ryan's diary (which has been preserved for the ages now). I thanked Jackie formally for my childhood, which was nice to do. Now I just need to find and thank Chip Lynn. I took pictures with Alpha and Monica (sort of) and then nipped off to buy new batteries for mein camera. When I returned, it was time for the Bulk and Skull panel which due to Paulie not showing up yet was the Skull panel. And man...Narvy is seriously one of the coolest fucking guys ever. He told us the awesome story of how he landed the role of Skull, did the laugh, and even went on a slight Shakespeare tangent. I want to take one of this dude's classes now.
I went to the Dealers' Room afterwards. I finally bought the Silver Ranger figure i've wanted since 1998. Chris and Jesse had apparently discovered LOADS of scripts and callsheets. They were $20 a piece and they bought all of them, which amounted to like $800. That's like...a lotteen scripts. They even found out the name of the actress who played Angela. Plus, Katie bought an Angel Grove High School hall pass. I even bought one of the Astro Megaship fliers from Quasar Quest.
I honestly don't remember much from the second Pretty and Powerful panel. I believe that was the one where Emma mentioned that Alycia is her dog's godmother and that they live together.
The SPD panel was fucking fantastic. It had to be held in the Dealers' Room because it was too hot (too DEAD SEXY) in the Los Angeles room. They all had little Labou miniposters that they were using as nametag dealies. Greg put his as "Some Strange Guy", which sort of set the tone for the rest of the panel with the mini poster shenanigans. For instance, when Matt Austin started talking about how hot it was in the Doggie Cruger suit for John Tui, Greg put up a card saying "Doggie Cruger Never Set on Fire.". These shenanigans happened a lot. Matt and Monica were asked to reenact the Buttery scene, and Matt EXPLAINED the origin of Buttery (it's supposed to be more synonymous with cool than margarine). He also had to stand on his head - he ended up doing this a *lot* over the course of the con. I got to ask two of my questions, which was awesome. Plus, I got one of the Labou miniposters Monica signed. I also ran into the NICEST security guard keeping the line regulated.
Next was the Producing Panel, which Chris managed to get Jackie to. Some guy took up like half the panel with his questions. The prospect of an ALL AMERICAN version of PR was brought up, which prompted me to suggest having Greg design the suits. Koichi nearly slipped the color of the apparent 5th Gekiranger. I hope someone's got it recorded. Greg told the story of how he saved a fuckton of PR suits from the shredder by taking them with him to New Zealand. God bless him.
After that I went into the hall. I got my picture taken with Alycia, who had like the longest line ahead of her. After I got out, I waited a bit and looked at the pictures i'd taken. Jackie came up to me and asked to see my pictures after commenting on how everybody seems to love Alycia. I got to the picture of me with Alpha, saying "God, I look either drunk or high here." "Alpha's not looking much better." I agreed. We looked for Chris, as there was gonna be some serious food eating going on. I asked if I could come with, and Jackie said that was fine. Chris, Jesse, some fellow named Justin who Chris and Jesse treated with great reverence named Justin (who is apparently a genius), and I all went off to dinner at Adoro's where Jackie already was. I'm going to say right here and now - Jackie Marchand is one of the coolest, nicest ladies ever. I mean, i'm a bit biased what with the whole gigantic-fucking-impact-on-my-childhood thing but man she was awesome. We all had a lovely chat while eating dinner, and we even met the owner of the restaraunt. Jackie paid for everybody, despite our insistance. God. Jackie Marchand bought me dinner. That's still, nearly a week later (it's Friday the 29th as I write this) hard to believe. I mean, just...jesus.
When we got back to the hotel, the first person we saw was Latham Gaines. We talked to him a bit, and we tried to get him on the phone with Jackie (she didn't answer). After that we headed up the escalator. I saw Narv coming down and high fived him. I shouted, "NARV!" "I'm off to pick Paulie up from the airport, guys! Back in a few!"
We headed up to the Rangerboard party suite, where Latham was there, and everyone was gathered 'round and listening. Pappy Mercer was a-tellin' stories. He talked about the sexual tension between Mesogog and Elsa a little bit, the nature of the fandom, and his experiences with Lothor. "A pony tail? That's your bad guy thing?" I asked what would have happened if he put Lothor in the Geno Randomizer, and he said whatever came out would have sucked, and then in the Mesogog voice "Lothor...I couldn't make you any more of a little bitch...than you already were..." Shortly after he left, security broke up the party. We went down to the bar, where I was quickly carded. Apparently I missed Walt salsa dancing.
The guys and I went down to the ballroom level, where we met up with Darrin (who is a great dude), Jake, and Marissa. Jake had thrice won the Masquerade, apparently! We remarked how Marissa and Jake should totally get married. Suddenly, noises started coming from below us. PAULIE HAD ARRIVED.
It was like a rockstar had come in. You could hear people chanting, "Bulk! Bulk! Bulk! Bulk!" Paulie was cool in a way very similar to Tom Hern - very laid back, a little 70sy. He threw me his used-up sharpie - I caught it REALLY well. Like, ninja well. "Nice reflexes." I thanked him for my interest in PR - my first memory of PR as a kid is seeing Bulk and Skull getting the shit scared out of them by Grumblebee. He was signing all kinds of shit. Chris then revealed he'd bought Skull's beret and gave it to Narvy to sign. He put it on and posed for pictures. I got him to sign my badge, which was cool. He commented that the thing he loved about this convention is how intimate it is.
After a while, I headed back up to the ballroom level. Chris saw Tony and Barb Oliver and hung a bit with them. The Eyeshine concert seemed to be slowly letting out, as Eric came out and showed me that their album was co-produced by JESUS. It was awesome. I ran into Rhoda and asked her if all the people asking her for things was annoying. She said it wasn't, and then a HUGE FUCKING CROWD OF PEOPLE showed up out of nowhere and began asking her for things. I figured that was as good a time as any to get a picture. Shortly afterwards, Paulie and Narv came up and the rockstaryness began again. I got the autograph of a hot goth girl whom i'm told is called Stunt Show Red (apparently she digs my teeth) Hot Gothy Stunt Show Red, if you're reading this, IM the heck out of me. I later got a picture with Paulie and his autograph on my badge. Paulie asked me why i'd ditched my shades. "So the ID waitress wouldn't recognize me at the bar.", I said. "You shoulda ditched the jacket, the shirt, gotten like, a bald cap, and gotten all hunched over..." Paulie said. Chris went to bed after this. I hung out a bit more and talked to Mo, who was super duper nice.
After things had cooled down a bit, I swung by the lobby and just hung a bit. I talked to Greg while catching the escalator and asked if i'd been being a dick to him - I felt like I had been. He said I hadn't, and that the whole "Greg should design the suits" thing was a total ego moment for him. I told him that, honestly, people miss the level of detail he put into things. I used the example of the alien pizza guy from Stakeout - he had an entire COSTUME and I don't think he even had any lines. Nowadays people can barely be even be bothered to make sure Nick isn't wearing Jack's jacket. I also asked how Labou had ended (I hadn't gotten to see all of it), and complimented him for making a perfect 80s movie. I asked if he'd be doing a meet and greet anytime soon, and he said he probably would and that he'd be down in the lobby later. Awesome.
It's at that point that, through carbon dating, archaeologists believe I headed back up to Ray's room where the party had started again but very quietly. I saw Marissa and Jake, who had evidently decided to stay. I honestly don't remember much after that bit, except that I then went back down to the lobbyplace and saw Greg talking with some fans. I joined in.
I essentially geeked out with Greg Aronowitz for two hours. It was AWESOME. I mean - this guy makes me want to be a filmmaker. He talked about his version of Mystic Force (a more Lord of the Ringsy series), his dogs, one of whom he named Silverback's robot dog after - CUTT, and all kinds of other stuff. God, he is seriously the coolest fucking dude. I cannot emphasize that to you enough. I really wish he'd come back to PR.
Day 3:
AND THEN RITO'S ALL YOU MISSED THE PARTY, SO I PULL OUT MY GUN...
Not the best way to start the day, admittedly, but no biggie. Called Chris a bit later and got breakfest with him and Jesse. Dude STILL insisted on paying.
Before things started up, we wandered a bit. There's evidently a Hillhurst Room at the Wilshire. Why the christ weren't things held THERE? >_>
SPD panel in the Los Angeles room - natch. It was a nice panel, Matt had to stand on his head *again*. Greg mentioned the detail thing i'd said about (the alien pizza guy). Alycia showed up late. Chris Violette totally murdered a guy. Oh, and Greg explained the alternate future from Messenger and how Sam didn't know about the Magnificence - Shorty and Devestation double crossed Gruumm and took Earth for themselves. I got a picture with Greg afterwards, and we all sort of begged him to come back to the show. Later I had Matt and Chris sign my Labou miniposter - I asked Matt to since he clearly played the Labou. This either REALLY cracked Chris up or caused him to be super sarcastic, because after that he went "HAHAHAHA! Matt played the Labou. That's funny. Hahaha. Matt played the Labou." or something to that basic effect.
DinoThunder panel was pleasant. Sure somebody recorded it.
There was a sizable break between the DT panel and the Voice Actors panel, so I went to the Dealers' Room. God, last day and I still had MOST of my money due to not buying much and people's insistance on paying for my meals. I decided to buy an LG autographed cast photo. Then it got a bit crazy and I decided, fuck it. I wanted it and I had the money. Plus, Chris egged me on. I bought the Psycho Red prop. I came out shouting, "I BOUGHT PSYCHO RED, BITCHES! I HAVE JOINED THE PRESTIGIOUS RANKS OF DEVIOT!" and then I headed into the Voice Acting panel, which was expectedly awesome. A guy had Latham do Mesogog ordering soup that he really likes, and I had him do "Very...collectible..." with my Psycho Red prop. IT WAS SO FUCKING AWESOME.
The Dealers' Room was closing down so I went in one last time and bought Boron and Roboborg. Then I went into the Bulk and Skull panel, which was fucking amazing. God, Narv and Paulie are brilliant.
The fan video contest was nice, except for Myster%ous' performance (personally, I shouted "Beetleborgs!" and "VR Troopers!" when he said go go). Eric came in with the prop power sword, which initially confused me. I liked Eric and Jewel's videos. FUCKING HATED THE ONE THAT WAS JUST TOY PICTURES AND TYPOS. WHOEVER YOU ARE THAT MADE THAT, UNLESS YOU ARE THE HOTTEST GIRL IN HUMAN HISTORY, I HATE YOU WITH THE POWER OF LEMON. Oh, and Thunderstruck was MAD mediocre. Mesh Pattel's Overdrive video that everyone liked because zomg tyzonn won in the end, but we all got prizes which was neat. I got the Anniversary Leo figure.
The stuff Tony showed us was cool. I liked the Zeo behind the scenes thing, although I wondered why A Season to Remember was shot in film quality wide screen. I wish we could have seen some of the extra stuff on the disks, but it's no biggie. Something that ended up being somewhat of a biggie, however, was Chris' speech getting cut. I saw him going up to Mo and Bri, so I figured all would be resolved.
I exited the Pacific Ballroom in a state of awe. Power Morphicon was over. I'd waited two and a half years and suddenly it was all over. It was overwhelming at first. It subsided after a while. I ran into Kelson a bit later and asked him to do "Well, Nick, y'see...". He did the WHOLE speech, it was awesome. Phineas ftw. People were crowded around Deb and Kevin, so I decided to not bother trying to get a picture with them. I noticed i'd gotten a call from Chris, and when I tried to return it I got his voicemail. I was concerned, so I went up to his room.
What happened between Chris and Mo has been a subject of some controversy, and as such I shall say what I saw exactly the way I saw it with no revision.
I went up to Chris' room. His aunt let me in. He was on his bed, shaking and in hysterics. He was scared for his life. He thought Kai would come up with goons or some such and beat his shit up. His aunt and I calmed him down, and we all decided to go get some dinner with Jesse and his folks. Jedi (whom America loves) joined us. It was a nice dinner.
I went with Chris and Jesse up to the Herndon's room so he could write some stuff. We agreed to meet up the next day.
I then elected to hang out in the Lobbyland. It was still so surreal to have Austin St. John and Tony Oliver just...walking by me. I decided to call Frannie up on the telephone machine. It was shortly after that that Richard Brancatisano walked right by me and I managed to get him on the phone with Frannie. I own her soul now, it's neat
After I got some of my stuff packed away, I went up to the party suite and had a pretty nice time. Took some pictures in Meg's Hurricanger jacket. I looked GOOD. I went to bed a little early. Lots of morning ahead of me.
Post-Conday:
Woke up early, started packing. Came down and waited. First Chris and his aunt came out of the elevator. With Latham Gaines. Jesse and his folks came by too. It was nice seeing everybody one last time.
I went outside to wait for the shuttle. I saw Latham again and said goodbye to him. I went on the shuttle and listened to a charming conversation between some of the Morphicon people and some of the people from the sex convention across the street talking about their experiences.
Some guy at Wendy's was a dick to me because I didn't wait in his line. Not much else of note happened. I got home late and went to bed so hard.
Innafinalanalysis:
Power Morphicon 2007 was probably one of the greatest things ever to happen to me. I loved meeting most of the people I met, and had some experiences that never in my life I shall forget. Some of the best things i've ever experienced, I experienced there. I spent a lot of time in the Los Angeles room. And i'll miss it. Truly, I will. It became like a second home to me. I miss you, Los Angeles room. I hope some day i'll see you again.
The Lost Weekend of the Daleks
or
AND THE PLOT TWIST IS YOU'RE ADOPTED!
The following is presented in a semi-linear format. Some of this shit is hard to remember in sequence, y'know? And if this is even half the events I witnessed, i'll be lucky I remembered it all - there was SO MUCH.
I miss the Los Angeles room greatly. I know a lot of people hated the shit out of the Wilshire, but I loved it. Call me sentimental, but I genuinely loved that place. Especially the Los Angeles room. I miss the Los Angeles room greatly. But I suppose i'd best start from the beginning in regards to that.
Day Zero
I boarded the airplane excitedly. It was the first i'd ever been on. IT WAS FUCKING TERRIFYING at first. Then it got all awesome when I started being above the clouds. HEY CLOUDS GUESS WHO IS MY BITCH I BET ALL OF MY STAR WARS GUYS THAT IT IS YOU. It was beautiful. How any being could see flight as anything but miraculous is a mystery to me. (And one cloud looked like Galactus. For serial.)
I got in and immediately saw a crowd of RBers. Scott Page-Pagter was there, being charming at everybody. Eventually I nipped off with Chris (who is a gentleman and a scholar), Jesse (who is Kevin Smith), and our collective folks to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Seems the RBers migrated there with Scott. We went in and said hi to them. Chris introduced ME along with him and Jesse, prompting Terri (Wyndstorm, who I wish I talked to more because she seemed like a nice lady) and Scott to look at eachother like "who the fuck is this kid and why does he have such great hair?", so I naturally had to hang a lamp on it and ask "Why the hell am *I* being introduced? I haven't actually *done* anything!" Also, due to some huge catering order, the food took for fucking ever to arrive. We suspected Richard Genile was out there somewhere with pizzas going into his mouth like a conveyor belt.
A bit later, we nipped off to check out the party that was apparently happening. Fans were being kicked out. Chris was greatly displeased by this turn of events. He went and had assorted words with Maureen and Myke. The words with Myke started off angry and by the end were downright polite. Eventually we were let in, it seemed. Then eventually I was carded by a waitress. OH LOOK AT ME I'M GOING TO ENFORCE THE LAW AND KICK YOU OUT. But on the bright side, I changed into my Beevor Jr. cosplay and snapped pictures when the cosplayers came down and ASJ hung with them. AND Chris came out a bit later and introduced me to Alycia. She was very nice. When I went up the escalator to go see Spy or some shit (it was a packed night, okay?) I saw Kelson Henderson. I yelled, "KELSON HENDERSON YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!". He seemed amused. He saw my SPD jacket and was all, "Heyyyyyy, SPD fan." I cracked up when Benta came down. People were taking pictures of him while he WAS NOT EVEN DOING ANYTHING. He was just STANDING there being all ungh i'm mysterrrrous and people ate it the fuck up.
Eventually, the ID waitress disappeared and I got in. It was magical. It was NIGHT ZERO. I met the SPD folks first. I told Greg Aronowitz (who, for the record, is a fucking superhero) I was a fan of "the good bits" of SPD. He then introduced me to Monica, saying "Hey, Monica! We have a fan!" She came over, very smiley. "Of the non sucky bits.", Greg continued. I specified not the non sucky bits, the GOOD bits. One sounds nicer. Monica's smile had turned to a sort of look of "I might be offended but i'm not quite sure". "What do you mean by 'the good bits'?" she asked. "The parts with all the characterization and plot, like the early episodes." Her smile returned and she seemed pleased with the answer, which left me relieved because I was fucking convinced for a minute i'd offended Monica and the con hadn't even STARTED yet. Matt came in with his publicist (I didn't know this at the time). When I saw her with him, I asked if she was his wife. She laughed a bit. "No, i'm his publicist." "They're the same job!"
A bit later, as i'm sure all of you lot know, the food fight broke out (after Narv came in and was instantly crowded around). I'll relay THAT as best as I can in order:
James dumps bottle of water/vodka on Alycia
James tosses platter of food at Monica, ruining her frankly adorable Muppets shirt. (And staining my SPD jacket, but...)
Jules points out to Narv he missed the opportunity to yell "FOOD FIGHT!"
Narv laments this fact.
Now, a bit later I sat down and hung with Latham and Emma. Some of this isn't in exact sequential order because that bit WAS kind of a blur. They were pretty awesome. After some of the stories i'd heard, I was a little bit surprised by how nice Emma is, and Latham is just good old fashioned cool. She and Latham hadn't seen eachother in years, so they were naturally super chummy. They told me about how during the filming of A Star is Torn, they did a cut of the Patiently music video with Latham in Mesogog make-up singing along. We talked a bit about actors in New Zealand, and I mentioned Latham's roles on Xena, including the bit where Xena killed him. Emma called Xena a bitch, which kind of made my night, along with Latham vowing to kick Bandai of America's asses after how they messed up the Mesogog figure (although apparently hearing about that killed Latham's buzz). Emma also showed off her outfit, which she called her maternity dress (and causing her to claim to be pregnant with Mesobabies). I later brought up how my jacket had the shittiest pockets ever. You could fit like, a baby carrot in there at most. She asked if it was an ORGANIC baby carrot, to which I replied of course. This lead to us discussing how she'd won that PETA award. Apparently they never actually gave her anything for that, although I suggested they should have sent her adorable endangered animals. A bit later, Alycia sat down aswell. She saw the jacket and seemed impressed. "So, SPD's pretty much your favorite season?" "Yeah, I suppose." Emma and Latham then got on me a bit. I told them that, hey, I never said I didn't love DinoThunder. Emma said that, hey, i'm not wearing a DinoThunder jacket though. I brought up that there weren't really DT jackets, but she wasn't having that. An even further bit later (yeah, i'm using a bit later a lot, but bear with me - most of Day Zero was a fucking blur for me >_>) Latham started playing around with his phone. He started spinning it about, and someone suggested it was the spin the bottle botttle. It first landed on a completely unaware Jesse (he was talking to Jules or somebody), prompting Latham to go "Mmmm...sexy...", which sent everyone into Laughterland, Germany. When it landed on ME, Alycia and Emma kept egging me on. I told them it would take a lot more peer pressure than that, and Alycia said that they were the peer pressure GANG. I got up and walked about slightly after that when I saw a bit of a crowd gathering elsewheres. Apparently Jason Napier and Tom Hern had showed up! They weren't actually guests, but just showed up to say hi, it seemed. Latham introduced me to Tom Hern ("This is Ryland, he knows things."), who is ridiculously 70s cool. He shook my hand and it turned into a weird magical secret handshake. Napier seemed pretty cool, although I felt a bit sorry for Mo that he was there when she wasn't.(Maybe they'll both meet at a The Tribe con or something, eh? Or maybe the much talked of PMC2). Firass and Melanie dropped by soon after. Firass was seemingly wasted the whole time, but an affable sort of wasted. Jules or Jesse, somebody with a J flavored name put a sign on his back reading "I'm Harry Potter", which he seemed to get a kick out of. Chris Violette showed up too, wearing an awesome hat and looking kind of like a hippie. Later, Jesse and I escorted Jules to her room when I saw her shirt had been stained by the food fight (keep in mind I was unaware mine had been stained at the time). She kept wanting to wash it, but I insisted they were memory stains. Also: JESUS CHRIST MY FEET WERE SO BLISTERED.
Randomass assorted memories I could not place:
I met Zeltrax and Keith Hayward. Both were nice guys, although I was a bit mystified by Keith calling me THE Impy. Apparently i'm important!
Someone offered Matt toast so he could do the Buttery thing at a panel. I pointed out to him he could probably get anything he wanted from these people. "Yeah, within the realm of bread products."
Walking by Monica and Matt, and Monica thinking i'd overheard something incriminating she said. I did not actually hear this, but for the sake of being interesting, let's say she murdered a bunch of homeless people in New Zealand.
I never actually saw this, but loads of people pointed out to me that James Macluran and Ria Vandervis went outside and then came back out a bit later with their hair all messed up >_>
Day 1:
RING RING RING RING RING RING WAKE UP WAKE UP IT IS MORNING NOW.
I was in a state of disbelief. Had last night actually happened? I mean - I fucking hung out with PR alumni, rode an airplane, and killed a man with my bare hands. Upon seeing Spy later, I discovered only the last part had been a dream.
I got dressed in my Beevor, Jr. cosplay. I think I used a bit too much hair gel. I came down and saw the volunteer staff gathering and (although ignorant to it at the moment) met Lezly, a charming and very pancake centric woman from Mexico. Tyler eventually pointed out to me the back of my jacket was covered in shrimp and shit. CURSE YOU, MACLURAN! I managed to clean it off, but...
I later popped off with Chris, Rangercast!Tyler, Jesse, and Jesse's folks for breakfest. Jesse showed me his TF prop, one of the prison mutants which I thought to be neat. I got my script for the MSTing, my lines all highlighted. The Herndons paid for breakfest, which was phoenomenally nice of them. Tyler, Chris, Jesse, and I got to the lobby shortly afterwards and saw the masses beginning to convene.
MMCorp was buzzing about, putting finishing touches on things and whatnot. Waiting with the other fans was fun. I finally realized the fellow i'd seen in the Pink and Yellow MMPR shirt was, in fact, JEDI. Jedi (also known as Matt) is, as you are no doubt aware by now, America's Swedish Bad Boy. Seriously, EVERYBODY fucking loved him. He event met Joe Flannigan at the airport. I gotta say - when registration opened? Getting that fucking badge was a euphoric moment. Later while sitting with Chris and Jesse, Ray came up to us. After introducing ourselves, Ray said "Wow, two legends. And a legend in training." Oh, and meeting Eric was cool. He's a good dude. Bit later, Chris, Jesse, and I popped into Ray's suite. It was pretty neat - Ray even did the Juice Bar pose. CoN actually popped into the DVD player the pilot episode of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. It was so hardcore mediocre - hopefully, it was just something to show potential investors or whatevs. The best bit was at the beginning, with the PSA that essentially amounted to "I'm Kamen Rider Dragon Knight - DON'T FUCKING DO DRUGS, OKAY?" When we came back down, there were some people from a booth for reading comprehension or something across from the Pacific Ballroom, and they were complete cunts. They were reading the Power Morphicon website and cracking the fuck up. I'M GLAD WE ENTERTAIN YOU SO. Seriously, direct quote "Power Morphicon weapons policy...BWAHAHAHAHA.". Punk bitches.
The actual hours of the con drew near. The cast members came into the Pacific Ballroom to much applause. Then - and this was the cutest goddamn thing i've ever seen - some mom lady came in with her little kid dressed in an NS Red halloween costume, to even GRANDER applause. Bravo, Shanekid, bravo. The fans convened in greater and greater numbers. I met a charming young lady named Marisa in remarkably wellmade Pink Mystic Force cosplay while waiting in line, and later met her boyfriend Jake. They were pretty cool. We waited in line (or, more descriptively, a somewhat line like mob) for what felt like ages. At last we were admitted entrance to the holy land of Morphicon.
The opening ceremony was nice. The bit with the Make-a-Wish kid was adorable. I loved the Bandai presentation for wholly inappropriate reasons. I mean, those guys were SHILLS. Like, Primo-big shills. And one of them looked UNNERVINGLY like Douglas Adams. They unveiled, with MUCH undeserved build up, the Mind-I MEAN MISSION Control helmet, which looks like shit. Seriously, I doubt it would even fit the heads of half the people who were in the room. I asked them what the rationale behind remolding the Drivemax Megazord was, and got...corporate nonanswers, predominantly. They were DOLING those out. They also passed about a clipboard and had us put down our email addresses and what not. Apparently it will be "worth it".
When I came out of that, I saw that Tony Oliver - yes, Tony Jeebus' Namesake Oliver - was interviewing cosplayers. NEAT. I took a picture with Jewel (who seemed like a nice girl, I ought to have spoken to her more) a bit later, around the same time I noticed that holy crap it was time for the Voice Acting panel. I got in as quick as I could.
The voice acting panel kicked ass. Neil Kaplan is clearly anything but new to conventions, as he did it MASTERFULLY. Kelson and Latham were great too, but damn - Neil ACED that shit. He told us stories of how he's played Huttese characters and had to SPEAK in Huttese, and did everyone's favorite bit: "Hawkmon, digivolve to...OPTIMUS PRIME." He also talked about how Diabolico was different from a lot of the villains he's done the voice for in that Diabolico was actually socially redeemable. Latham talked about how when trying to figure out how to do Mesogog's voice, he rented loads of dinosaur movies and couldn't figure anything out. But he finally figured it out after watching his cat hissing at another cat. Kelson spoke of how the Norg voice is hard to do sans suit. Hopefully someone got that thing recorded, because damn that was a great way to start off the con proper. Plus, it was in the Los Angeles room.
After that I hit up the dealers room and was blown the hell away by the props table. They had fucking everything. Cog masks, prop morphers, power coins, Ryan's diary, the beetle forms of the Beetleborgs, the VTs from VR Troopers, Psycho Red, and SO MUCH MORE. By Day 2 they even had ALPHA. There was also a table which had replicas of the Power Sword and Dragon Dagger - very cool. They had a lot of foreign editions of MMPR toys, including german versions of the talking rangers. The last table had mostly just regular toys, not particularly special >_>. But on the OTHER side of the room? Meet and greet, bitches! I got Neil Kaplan's autograph on my badge. It owned. I also got Matt Austin on the phone with Frannie.
I came in on the Mystic Force panel super duper late. Sat down next to what I thought at first to be just some lady. Firass seemed to be the exact opposite of Nick - dude was friendly, cool, and funny. After it ended, I found out that the some lady I sat next to was JACKIE FUCKING MARCHAND. Yes, I had just sat down next to someone who had an impossibly huge impact on my childhood and not even known it. Wacky.
The Pretty and Powerful panel and the Myster?ous concert were scheduled at the same time. So Pretty and Powerful was fucking packed. It was kind of awkward at first - no one really had questions as such for the most part. There wasn't a chair for Alycia at first either, so she had to make due with Emma's lap for a bit. There was this one guy with his kids in a blue shirt and sunglasses who seemed like a total prick. I asked Rhoda Montemayor what exactly a quid is (same thing as a pound, apparently). When Melanie talked about her projects, she mentioned her failed pilot. I instantly chimed in, "Is that the 'Secretary' one?" She said that it was and then looked at me with an odd mixture of being impressed and being startled. At one point somebody asked the girls to do their morphs. Emma had totally forgotten hers (and did it with Lothos). Melanie couldn't do it without Firass. SPEAKING of Firass, he evidently had Morphicon Kid ask if anyone on the panel was single. And then later had him ask to see their muffs, which I don't *think* got a response. At the end, I told Monica I was sad I couldn't see Labou because it was scheduled at the same time as the trial run for the MSTing. She asked why, and I explained how Labou was running concurrently to our trial run. She said if we showed up to Labou, she'd come to the MSTing. We decided we could go without a trial run and elected to go to Labou later on.
Next was the Trivia Contest. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Celestial Fury was pretty good. Labou was a lot better. I love the idea of it, in that - this isn't just a regular movie. It is SPECIFICALLY an eighties kids movie. And it hits every 80s kids movie note it needs to, right down to the wealthy-but-clinically-retarded land developers who want to hurt the environment, the plucky children one or more of whom must learn a life lesson, some kind of magic or super technology, and Monica May (fact: Monica May is in every single shot of The Goonies). Unfortunately, I couldn't stay and see all of it, as I was needed for MSTy stuff.
Jesse and I, while we waited for Chris sort of held an impromptu panel for like an hour. Monica May never showed and I fucked up half my cues. You can listen to it via the Rangercast contraption. After that, Jesse and I hung out a little with Lezly, who kept insisting on either going clubbing or eating pancakes. I hit the hot tub shortly after that, and talked with Jewel and Ken (or Cam, as most people were calling him) for a while. We all tried explaining our mutual love of PR to some other guy at the hot tub, who didn't entirely get it. I went into the pool a bit later and ended up realizing that Jesus Christ it was like 1:38 in the morning.
Day 2:
Woke up earlyish. Caught breakfest with Chris, a croissant and Crush grape soda (which he paid for - seriously, people love buying me stuff, it's awesome). We waited a bit before the con doors opened. I talked to Frannie a bit and then did a merry jig for Lezly (she seemed morose), who then seemed to be quite enamored with me for the rest of the con. Shortly afterwards, we went off to Conventionland for the MMPR panel which was impossibly great. I feel I shouldn't put in too much about the panels because most of them will be availible in full, but god - the MMPR panel was so great. I honestly never thought Austin St. John would be that funny. I still suspect he doesn't even know what that Bluetooth is for, though and that he got it in a box of cracker jacks. My head was fucking pounding for a lot of the day afterwards - i'd sat right near the speakers.
I skipped out on the stunts show to go to the Dealers' Room. Chris and Jesse were hanging about with Jackie at the Props Table - they'd found Ryan's diary (which has been preserved for the ages now). I thanked Jackie formally for my childhood, which was nice to do. Now I just need to find and thank Chip Lynn. I took pictures with Alpha and Monica (sort of) and then nipped off to buy new batteries for mein camera. When I returned, it was time for the Bulk and Skull panel which due to Paulie not showing up yet was the Skull panel. And man...Narvy is seriously one of the coolest fucking guys ever. He told us the awesome story of how he landed the role of Skull, did the laugh, and even went on a slight Shakespeare tangent. I want to take one of this dude's classes now.
I went to the Dealers' Room afterwards. I finally bought the Silver Ranger figure i've wanted since 1998. Chris and Jesse had apparently discovered LOADS of scripts and callsheets. They were $20 a piece and they bought all of them, which amounted to like $800. That's like...a lotteen scripts. They even found out the name of the actress who played Angela. Plus, Katie bought an Angel Grove High School hall pass. I even bought one of the Astro Megaship fliers from Quasar Quest.
I honestly don't remember much from the second Pretty and Powerful panel. I believe that was the one where Emma mentioned that Alycia is her dog's godmother and that they live together.
The SPD panel was fucking fantastic. It had to be held in the Dealers' Room because it was too hot (too DEAD SEXY) in the Los Angeles room. They all had little Labou miniposters that they were using as nametag dealies. Greg put his as "Some Strange Guy", which sort of set the tone for the rest of the panel with the mini poster shenanigans. For instance, when Matt Austin started talking about how hot it was in the Doggie Cruger suit for John Tui, Greg put up a card saying "Doggie Cruger Never Set on Fire.". These shenanigans happened a lot. Matt and Monica were asked to reenact the Buttery scene, and Matt EXPLAINED the origin of Buttery (it's supposed to be more synonymous with cool than margarine). He also had to stand on his head - he ended up doing this a *lot* over the course of the con. I got to ask two of my questions, which was awesome. Plus, I got one of the Labou miniposters Monica signed. I also ran into the NICEST security guard keeping the line regulated.
Next was the Producing Panel, which Chris managed to get Jackie to. Some guy took up like half the panel with his questions. The prospect of an ALL AMERICAN version of PR was brought up, which prompted me to suggest having Greg design the suits. Koichi nearly slipped the color of the apparent 5th Gekiranger. I hope someone's got it recorded. Greg told the story of how he saved a fuckton of PR suits from the shredder by taking them with him to New Zealand. God bless him.
After that I went into the hall. I got my picture taken with Alycia, who had like the longest line ahead of her. After I got out, I waited a bit and looked at the pictures i'd taken. Jackie came up to me and asked to see my pictures after commenting on how everybody seems to love Alycia. I got to the picture of me with Alpha, saying "God, I look either drunk or high here." "Alpha's not looking much better." I agreed. We looked for Chris, as there was gonna be some serious food eating going on. I asked if I could come with, and Jackie said that was fine. Chris, Jesse, some fellow named Justin who Chris and Jesse treated with great reverence named Justin (who is apparently a genius), and I all went off to dinner at Adoro's where Jackie already was. I'm going to say right here and now - Jackie Marchand is one of the coolest, nicest ladies ever. I mean, i'm a bit biased what with the whole gigantic-fucking-impact-on-my-childhood thing but man she was awesome. We all had a lovely chat while eating dinner, and we even met the owner of the restaraunt. Jackie paid for everybody, despite our insistance. God. Jackie Marchand bought me dinner. That's still, nearly a week later (it's Friday the 29th as I write this) hard to believe. I mean, just...jesus.
When we got back to the hotel, the first person we saw was Latham Gaines. We talked to him a bit, and we tried to get him on the phone with Jackie (she didn't answer). After that we headed up the escalator. I saw Narv coming down and high fived him. I shouted, "NARV!" "I'm off to pick Paulie up from the airport, guys! Back in a few!"
We headed up to the Rangerboard party suite, where Latham was there, and everyone was gathered 'round and listening. Pappy Mercer was a-tellin' stories. He talked about the sexual tension between Mesogog and Elsa a little bit, the nature of the fandom, and his experiences with Lothor. "A pony tail? That's your bad guy thing?" I asked what would have happened if he put Lothor in the Geno Randomizer, and he said whatever came out would have sucked, and then in the Mesogog voice "Lothor...I couldn't make you any more of a little bitch...than you already were..." Shortly after he left, security broke up the party. We went down to the bar, where I was quickly carded. Apparently I missed Walt salsa dancing.
The guys and I went down to the ballroom level, where we met up with Darrin (who is a great dude), Jake, and Marissa. Jake had thrice won the Masquerade, apparently! We remarked how Marissa and Jake should totally get married. Suddenly, noises started coming from below us. PAULIE HAD ARRIVED.
It was like a rockstar had come in. You could hear people chanting, "Bulk! Bulk! Bulk! Bulk!" Paulie was cool in a way very similar to Tom Hern - very laid back, a little 70sy. He threw me his used-up sharpie - I caught it REALLY well. Like, ninja well. "Nice reflexes." I thanked him for my interest in PR - my first memory of PR as a kid is seeing Bulk and Skull getting the shit scared out of them by Grumblebee. He was signing all kinds of shit. Chris then revealed he'd bought Skull's beret and gave it to Narvy to sign. He put it on and posed for pictures. I got him to sign my badge, which was cool. He commented that the thing he loved about this convention is how intimate it is.
After a while, I headed back up to the ballroom level. Chris saw Tony and Barb Oliver and hung a bit with them. The Eyeshine concert seemed to be slowly letting out, as Eric came out and showed me that their album was co-produced by JESUS. It was awesome. I ran into Rhoda and asked her if all the people asking her for things was annoying. She said it wasn't, and then a HUGE FUCKING CROWD OF PEOPLE showed up out of nowhere and began asking her for things. I figured that was as good a time as any to get a picture. Shortly afterwards, Paulie and Narv came up and the rockstaryness began again. I got the autograph of a hot goth girl whom i'm told is called Stunt Show Red (apparently she digs my teeth) Hot Gothy Stunt Show Red, if you're reading this, IM the heck out of me. I later got a picture with Paulie and his autograph on my badge. Paulie asked me why i'd ditched my shades. "So the ID waitress wouldn't recognize me at the bar.", I said. "You shoulda ditched the jacket, the shirt, gotten like, a bald cap, and gotten all hunched over..." Paulie said. Chris went to bed after this. I hung out a bit more and talked to Mo, who was super duper nice.
After things had cooled down a bit, I swung by the lobby and just hung a bit. I talked to Greg while catching the escalator and asked if i'd been being a dick to him - I felt like I had been. He said I hadn't, and that the whole "Greg should design the suits" thing was a total ego moment for him. I told him that, honestly, people miss the level of detail he put into things. I used the example of the alien pizza guy from Stakeout - he had an entire COSTUME and I don't think he even had any lines. Nowadays people can barely be even be bothered to make sure Nick isn't wearing Jack's jacket. I also asked how Labou had ended (I hadn't gotten to see all of it), and complimented him for making a perfect 80s movie. I asked if he'd be doing a meet and greet anytime soon, and he said he probably would and that he'd be down in the lobby later. Awesome.
It's at that point that, through carbon dating, archaeologists believe I headed back up to Ray's room where the party had started again but very quietly. I saw Marissa and Jake, who had evidently decided to stay. I honestly don't remember much after that bit, except that I then went back down to the lobbyplace and saw Greg talking with some fans. I joined in.
I essentially geeked out with Greg Aronowitz for two hours. It was AWESOME. I mean - this guy makes me want to be a filmmaker. He talked about his version of Mystic Force (a more Lord of the Ringsy series), his dogs, one of whom he named Silverback's robot dog after - CUTT, and all kinds of other stuff. God, he is seriously the coolest fucking dude. I cannot emphasize that to you enough. I really wish he'd come back to PR.
Day 3:
AND THEN RITO'S ALL YOU MISSED THE PARTY, SO I PULL OUT MY GUN...
Not the best way to start the day, admittedly, but no biggie. Called Chris a bit later and got breakfest with him and Jesse. Dude STILL insisted on paying.
Before things started up, we wandered a bit. There's evidently a Hillhurst Room at the Wilshire. Why the christ weren't things held THERE? >_>
SPD panel in the Los Angeles room - natch. It was a nice panel, Matt had to stand on his head *again*. Greg mentioned the detail thing i'd said about (the alien pizza guy). Alycia showed up late. Chris Violette totally murdered a guy. Oh, and Greg explained the alternate future from Messenger and how Sam didn't know about the Magnificence - Shorty and Devestation double crossed Gruumm and took Earth for themselves. I got a picture with Greg afterwards, and we all sort of begged him to come back to the show. Later I had Matt and Chris sign my Labou miniposter - I asked Matt to since he clearly played the Labou. This either REALLY cracked Chris up or caused him to be super sarcastic, because after that he went "HAHAHAHA! Matt played the Labou. That's funny. Hahaha. Matt played the Labou." or something to that basic effect.
DinoThunder panel was pleasant. Sure somebody recorded it.
There was a sizable break between the DT panel and the Voice Actors panel, so I went to the Dealers' Room. God, last day and I still had MOST of my money due to not buying much and people's insistance on paying for my meals. I decided to buy an LG autographed cast photo. Then it got a bit crazy and I decided, fuck it. I wanted it and I had the money. Plus, Chris egged me on. I bought the Psycho Red prop. I came out shouting, "I BOUGHT PSYCHO RED, BITCHES! I HAVE JOINED THE PRESTIGIOUS RANKS OF DEVIOT!" and then I headed into the Voice Acting panel, which was expectedly awesome. A guy had Latham do Mesogog ordering soup that he really likes, and I had him do "Very...collectible..." with my Psycho Red prop. IT WAS SO FUCKING AWESOME.
The Dealers' Room was closing down so I went in one last time and bought Boron and Roboborg. Then I went into the Bulk and Skull panel, which was fucking amazing. God, Narv and Paulie are brilliant.
The fan video contest was nice, except for Myster%ous' performance (personally, I shouted "Beetleborgs!" and "VR Troopers!" when he said go go). Eric came in with the prop power sword, which initially confused me. I liked Eric and Jewel's videos. FUCKING HATED THE ONE THAT WAS JUST TOY PICTURES AND TYPOS. WHOEVER YOU ARE THAT MADE THAT, UNLESS YOU ARE THE HOTTEST GIRL IN HUMAN HISTORY, I HATE YOU WITH THE POWER OF LEMON. Oh, and Thunderstruck was MAD mediocre. Mesh Pattel's Overdrive video that everyone liked because zomg tyzonn won in the end, but we all got prizes which was neat. I got the Anniversary Leo figure.
The stuff Tony showed us was cool. I liked the Zeo behind the scenes thing, although I wondered why A Season to Remember was shot in film quality wide screen. I wish we could have seen some of the extra stuff on the disks, but it's no biggie. Something that ended up being somewhat of a biggie, however, was Chris' speech getting cut. I saw him going up to Mo and Bri, so I figured all would be resolved.
I exited the Pacific Ballroom in a state of awe. Power Morphicon was over. I'd waited two and a half years and suddenly it was all over. It was overwhelming at first. It subsided after a while. I ran into Kelson a bit later and asked him to do "Well, Nick, y'see...". He did the WHOLE speech, it was awesome. Phineas ftw. People were crowded around Deb and Kevin, so I decided to not bother trying to get a picture with them. I noticed i'd gotten a call from Chris, and when I tried to return it I got his voicemail. I was concerned, so I went up to his room.
What happened between Chris and Mo has been a subject of some controversy, and as such I shall say what I saw exactly the way I saw it with no revision.
I went up to Chris' room. His aunt let me in. He was on his bed, shaking and in hysterics. He was scared for his life. He thought Kai would come up with goons or some such and beat his shit up. His aunt and I calmed him down, and we all decided to go get some dinner with Jesse and his folks. Jedi (whom America loves) joined us. It was a nice dinner.
I went with Chris and Jesse up to the Herndon's room so he could write some stuff. We agreed to meet up the next day.
I then elected to hang out in the Lobbyland. It was still so surreal to have Austin St. John and Tony Oliver just...walking by me. I decided to call Frannie up on the telephone machine. It was shortly after that that Richard Brancatisano walked right by me and I managed to get him on the phone with Frannie. I own her soul now, it's neat
After I got some of my stuff packed away, I went up to the party suite and had a pretty nice time. Took some pictures in Meg's Hurricanger jacket. I looked GOOD. I went to bed a little early. Lots of morning ahead of me.
Post-Conday:
Woke up early, started packing. Came down and waited. First Chris and his aunt came out of the elevator. With Latham Gaines. Jesse and his folks came by too. It was nice seeing everybody one last time.
I went outside to wait for the shuttle. I saw Latham again and said goodbye to him. I went on the shuttle and listened to a charming conversation between some of the Morphicon people and some of the people from the sex convention across the street talking about their experiences.
Some guy at Wendy's was a dick to me because I didn't wait in his line. Not much else of note happened. I got home late and went to bed so hard.
Innafinalanalysis:
Power Morphicon 2007 was probably one of the greatest things ever to happen to me. I loved meeting most of the people I met, and had some experiences that never in my life I shall forget. Some of the best things i've ever experienced, I experienced there. I spent a lot of time in the Los Angeles room. And i'll miss it. Truly, I will. It became like a second home to me. I miss you, Los Angeles room. I hope some day i'll see you again.
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