The Celebrity Whore Once Again Does Burbank - Feb 2013, Day One
Dateline: Friday
I've got a Golden Tiiiiicket for Creation's "Grand Slam" con.
Brief history: I bought the ticket sight unseen at a con in Nov 2011, and still got row D. I didn't like them apples. The first headliner was James Marsters (Spike on the ol' Buffy show). Then suddenly the whole show was moved to February 2013 instead of Nov 2012 to accommodate Patrick Stewart's schedule. James dropped out. The roster was filled by Star Trek guests and sundry. Mostly ST guests, especially The Next Generation. I put away the little figure I'd been making of James and started making little figures of the other guests. Then Creation kept adding them fast and furious, including James coming back, till around 30 guests were reached. I had the figures and way too many other things on my plate, so I couldn't make figures of everyone. To make things clear, I was making them for their centerpiece contest that they have at... every con? I don't know. The grand prize is $250... in Creation merchandise, and event tickets don't count. I buy VERY little of their merch, so it's more of an honor to win than anything else. But I would like to suggest to them that tickets be allowed.
I should say that, as a rule, I avoid ST cons because they give me this... dime-a-dozen feeling? Maybe it's because the show's been around so long and there have been thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of cons ever since. I've just never wanted to attend any of them, even though, yes, I admire the shows and movies. But "Grand Slam" became a ST con, so there you go.
While in line I spotted my con-buddy Bob, whom I hung out with in Nov 2011 and kinda-sorta did this year. He always has such wonderful seats, though. There were other recognizable faces, and I even chatted with one group, but otherwise was not welcomed into their fold.
Jeffrey Combs opened the show. He's a character actor that usually works in sci-fi and horror and is, of course, perfectly normal in person. I brought a copy of The Frighteners for him to sign. He wrote "My Body is a Roadmap of Pain!!" He had a table all weekend and seemed to make decent business. He also wandered into other people's Q&A sessions sometimes and was seen walking about the hotel grounds a lot. He told Scott Bakula (Star Trek: Enterprise) and Avery Brooks (ST: Deep Space 9) stories. Scott shook hands with and said goodbye to everyone on the Enterprise set, every day, at the end of his wraps. Avery scolded Jeffrey for holding a cup of coffee while waiting for his call to set. He did a pretty good Shatner impression as he pointed that... he'd... never... workedwithShatnerbefore.
I skipped Michael Demeritt's Q&A because I had a photo op with Jeffrey.
Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating paired up - they probably usually are - and chatted about Star Trek: Enterprise and the toughness of the industry. ie, finding work in it. Did not have photo ops with either, but I grabbed a group shot of the Enterprise cast and started off the autograph collection with theirs. They confirmed that Scott Bakula is a nice guy.
Bruce Boxleitner talked about Babylon 5 - he disapproved of the sequel, Crusade - Scarecrow and Mrs. King, all flavors of TRON, and an online Steampunk venture called Lantern City. I happen to be seguing into steampunk as an interest (thanks a lot, Foglios!), so I may need to visit the site. Apparently there was bad blood about Claudia Christian's departure from B5, but he wouldn't dish. I may have heard the "why" but have forgotten it by now. He poked a bit of fun at ST and touted B5 as the superior show. I'm undecided. He also wore TRON-related shirts all weekend. His first said "I Fight for the Users!"
Later on I thanked him for coming to the show and for fighting for the users. And I totally forgot to bring my TRON DVD for him to sign, so I had to buy a pic. I joked with him about forming a singing group (of gravel-voiced baritones) with Alec Baldwin, Will Arnette and Sam Elliot, or just making a "Charlies" movie, with Sam as the Bosley character. No "Angels." Just "Charlies!"
Rene Aberjonois was paired with Armin Shimerman, both long-credit actors but paired because of ST: DS9, but Armin had prior commitments. This was fine because Rene could more than hold his own. He has a quirky sense of humor and even went back as far as M*A*S*H. He was wearing a full set of khakis and army boots that he swears were not intended to recreate Father Mulcahy. Maybe it was subliminal. Also, the set of DS9 was not "jolly" because Avery Brooks is intense and all but humorless. But he enjoyed the work.
I skipped Rod Roddenberry's talk because I needed food.
The Cabaret
Open to Golden Tiiiiicket customers.
Connor and Jeffrey teamed up to read a scene written by one of Connor's friends, about how badly awry a story pitch can go. In this case, a pitch for a biopic about Ben Franklin became a time travel story with Ben as an action hero fighting Osama Bin Laden and aided by a mysterious hero of the future. I believe the final title was "Ben and Bin."
Dominic did stand-up comedy. A few jokes about London then vs now, and he read from "The Onion"-like articles that made fun of pretty much every nationality, with him doing accents throughout. He swears that the first article, about a Scottish wedding gone wrong, was an actual article in The Sun. The others were just The Onion-style tomfoolery. He also read his favorite jokes from his favorite stand-up comic, whose name escapes me, but the first was, "Two blondes walk into a building. You'd think one of them would have seen it."
Chase Masterson (Leeta the "Dabo Girl" on DS9) evoked Jessica Rabbit with her choice of outfits and sang half a set of torch songs ("Latinum is a Girl's Best Friend!"). A man in front of me... was enthusiastic... about her performance. She finished the set with "Pure Imagination," and the crowd went wild, and that guy went wilder. But no celebrities were harmed. She had a signing table all weekend but I don't believe that she had a Q&A session. Also, the Jessica Rabbit reference became even more true later, when she wore outfits at the table that showed off her major gazongas, and I can call them that, because mine used to be bigger before I removed most of them. Oh, don't look at me like that. I couldn't even trot with the bloody things, never mind galloping.
I skipped the Karaoke party, but gave a lot of thought about singing a karaoke version of "When We're Human" from The Princess and the Frog, because I can sing all three parts. But the chances of there being a karaoke version of that song? About as good as changing an alligator into a human.
Thus ended Friday.
I've got a Golden Tiiiiicket for Creation's "Grand Slam" con.
Brief history: I bought the ticket sight unseen at a con in Nov 2011, and still got row D. I didn't like them apples. The first headliner was James Marsters (Spike on the ol' Buffy show). Then suddenly the whole show was moved to February 2013 instead of Nov 2012 to accommodate Patrick Stewart's schedule. James dropped out. The roster was filled by Star Trek guests and sundry. Mostly ST guests, especially The Next Generation. I put away the little figure I'd been making of James and started making little figures of the other guests. Then Creation kept adding them fast and furious, including James coming back, till around 30 guests were reached. I had the figures and way too many other things on my plate, so I couldn't make figures of everyone. To make things clear, I was making them for their centerpiece contest that they have at... every con? I don't know. The grand prize is $250... in Creation merchandise, and event tickets don't count. I buy VERY little of their merch, so it's more of an honor to win than anything else. But I would like to suggest to them that tickets be allowed.
I should say that, as a rule, I avoid ST cons because they give me this... dime-a-dozen feeling? Maybe it's because the show's been around so long and there have been thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of cons ever since. I've just never wanted to attend any of them, even though, yes, I admire the shows and movies. But "Grand Slam" became a ST con, so there you go.
While in line I spotted my con-buddy Bob, whom I hung out with in Nov 2011 and kinda-sorta did this year. He always has such wonderful seats, though. There were other recognizable faces, and I even chatted with one group, but otherwise was not welcomed into their fold.
Jeffrey Combs opened the show. He's a character actor that usually works in sci-fi and horror and is, of course, perfectly normal in person. I brought a copy of The Frighteners for him to sign. He wrote "My Body is a Roadmap of Pain!!" He had a table all weekend and seemed to make decent business. He also wandered into other people's Q&A sessions sometimes and was seen walking about the hotel grounds a lot. He told Scott Bakula (Star Trek: Enterprise) and Avery Brooks (ST: Deep Space 9) stories. Scott shook hands with and said goodbye to everyone on the Enterprise set, every day, at the end of his wraps. Avery scolded Jeffrey for holding a cup of coffee while waiting for his call to set. He did a pretty good Shatner impression as he pointed that... he'd... never... workedwithShatnerbefore.
I skipped Michael Demeritt's Q&A because I had a photo op with Jeffrey.
Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating paired up - they probably usually are - and chatted about Star Trek: Enterprise and the toughness of the industry. ie, finding work in it. Did not have photo ops with either, but I grabbed a group shot of the Enterprise cast and started off the autograph collection with theirs. They confirmed that Scott Bakula is a nice guy.
Bruce Boxleitner talked about Babylon 5 - he disapproved of the sequel, Crusade - Scarecrow and Mrs. King, all flavors of TRON, and an online Steampunk venture called Lantern City. I happen to be seguing into steampunk as an interest (thanks a lot, Foglios!), so I may need to visit the site. Apparently there was bad blood about Claudia Christian's departure from B5, but he wouldn't dish. I may have heard the "why" but have forgotten it by now. He poked a bit of fun at ST and touted B5 as the superior show. I'm undecided. He also wore TRON-related shirts all weekend. His first said "I Fight for the Users!"
Later on I thanked him for coming to the show and for fighting for the users. And I totally forgot to bring my TRON DVD for him to sign, so I had to buy a pic. I joked with him about forming a singing group (of gravel-voiced baritones) with Alec Baldwin, Will Arnette and Sam Elliot, or just making a "Charlies" movie, with Sam as the Bosley character. No "Angels." Just "Charlies!"
Rene Aberjonois was paired with Armin Shimerman, both long-credit actors but paired because of ST: DS9, but Armin had prior commitments. This was fine because Rene could more than hold his own. He has a quirky sense of humor and even went back as far as M*A*S*H. He was wearing a full set of khakis and army boots that he swears were not intended to recreate Father Mulcahy. Maybe it was subliminal. Also, the set of DS9 was not "jolly" because Avery Brooks is intense and all but humorless. But he enjoyed the work.
I skipped Rod Roddenberry's talk because I needed food.
The Cabaret
Open to Golden Tiiiiicket customers.
Connor and Jeffrey teamed up to read a scene written by one of Connor's friends, about how badly awry a story pitch can go. In this case, a pitch for a biopic about Ben Franklin became a time travel story with Ben as an action hero fighting Osama Bin Laden and aided by a mysterious hero of the future. I believe the final title was "Ben and Bin."
Dominic did stand-up comedy. A few jokes about London then vs now, and he read from "The Onion"-like articles that made fun of pretty much every nationality, with him doing accents throughout. He swears that the first article, about a Scottish wedding gone wrong, was an actual article in The Sun. The others were just The Onion-style tomfoolery. He also read his favorite jokes from his favorite stand-up comic, whose name escapes me, but the first was, "Two blondes walk into a building. You'd think one of them would have seen it."
Chase Masterson (Leeta the "Dabo Girl" on DS9) evoked Jessica Rabbit with her choice of outfits and sang half a set of torch songs ("Latinum is a Girl's Best Friend!"). A man in front of me... was enthusiastic... about her performance. She finished the set with "Pure Imagination," and the crowd went wild, and that guy went wilder. But no celebrities were harmed. She had a signing table all weekend but I don't believe that she had a Q&A session. Also, the Jessica Rabbit reference became even more true later, when she wore outfits at the table that showed off her major gazongas, and I can call them that, because mine used to be bigger before I removed most of them. Oh, don't look at me like that. I couldn't even trot with the bloody things, never mind galloping.
I skipped the Karaoke party, but gave a lot of thought about singing a karaoke version of "When We're Human" from The Princess and the Frog, because I can sing all three parts. But the chances of there being a karaoke version of that song? About as good as changing an alligator into a human.
Thus ended Friday.