Asylum Europe Report - SUNDAY
Here we go. Last but not least, my
S U N D A Y
We kicked off the last day with the M² panel, which was as wild and hilarious as expected. Before the start of the actual panel, a Cas!Bear was being raffled off for charity and Will Dunlop of Phoenix Copper art asked me to take the bag with the tickets on stage. I agreed, because hey, who am I to turn down a bonus five seconds in close proximity of Mark and Misha? Tehee. And so I stood by the side of the stage for the first few minutes until everything was ready, then went up and handed the bag to Misha - who gave me a very brief, but really beautiful (and confused! lol) smile of recognition (yay!). He obviously didn’t know what was going on and somehow Doug didn’t do a lot of explaining either, but in the end they figured out that they were supposed to pick a winner and so they did. Then the panel started and the zoologist came back for an encore and put Mark and Misha in an actual ring of salt up on stage. Things like that are always risky - I always kinda feel like they’re funnier in theory and if you’re unlucky, they can turn out extremely awkward. Thank God the boys totally ran with it, so it was cool. Misha stayed in the ring of salt like the good little angel that Cas is, whereas Mark got up and jumped and tap danced around and in and out of the circle SO FUCKING QUEEN-LIKE, we were all in stitches. They also mercilessly mocked a girl who had a very thick German accent. She asked them what being they’d play on SPN if they had to choose, but the way she said ‘to choose’ sounded like ‘two shoes’ and Misha of course picked up on that and… I suppose you can imagine the rest. Add Mark and you have the perfect, stomach-cramps-due-to-laughing kind of running gag. Also, when asked what MotW they’d like to play, Misha said ‘the cookie monster’ and Mark started talking like the cookie monster. Oh, and Misha explained Dean/Cas to Mark, LOL. And because he wasn’t sure the hotel staff would appreciate the ring of salt, Misha started cleaning it up at some point, haha.
Afterwards, I had a ticket for Misha’s coffee lounge, for which I was extremely excited. There were a few things I wanted to tell him (no TMI, relax!), so when I got there and instead of the 15-20 people that are meant to be at a coffee lounge there were quite a few more, I was honestly a little disappointed. I’ll admit, I booked the Sunday coffee lounge because I didn’t want my photos to clash with one of them, but apparently the Saturday coffee lounge was much smaller and so they just transferred the remaining Saturday tickets to Sunday. That’s just not cool because then we ended up sitting in a HUGE circle around Misha, some of us in a second row behind other people, and if you were sat opposite Misha in that big circle, you really had to be quiet and listen or you almost couldn’t hear him. It was still a worthwhile experience, but I just wish they’d kept the groups smaller and told people to suck it up in regards to the photos. I mean, if I’d been given the choice of coffee lounge or no coffee lounge, I’d have bitten the bullet and rushed around a lot more on the Saturday. Ah well. I’d bought tons of candy to get me through this weekend, and since we went outside to sit on the grass (crashing Mark’s coffee lounge in the process by walking right through it, LOL) and didn’t bring any food with us (or coffee, for that matter, lol), I offered my stuff to everyone and we shared my Russion bread and gummy bears. Misha kept one pack all for himself, I think? Or at least he was the very first one to grab it, haha. He talked about remodeling his house for a long time and also his old software company. Then asked about travel advice for Europe, as he’d be spending some more time here both privately and at conventions. I didn’t really have anything useful to contribute to Europe, but I told him that next time he goes to Australia for a con, he should either go to Taronga Zoo (Sydney) or Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. He said to me I should have told him that before he went to Australia and I said I didn’t think he’d keep failing to find a damn kangaroo because they’re literally EVERYWHERE, lol. The coffee lounge was of course over way too soon, like everything this weekend. We took a quick group photo, then that was it.
My other coffee lounge was Traci, which was just AWESOME! We were only 10 people, so it really was like sitting down outside on the grass with a bunch of buddies and just chilling out and yapping away. We talked about why Pamela was so well liked, what our previous favorite shows were, travel tips for America for Kat, and of course Traci brought her drum and at the end of the panel we sang “When I rise” together. I got to use the egg shakers, but uhm, I’m not the most musically gifted person in the world, lol, so I soon handed them over to Kat. At the end, we also took the group photo and Traci gave me a big, heartfelt hug goodbye. Siiigh, I’ll miss my gorgeous, gorgeous Groove Goddess!
Turns out though that the coffee lounge wasn’t the last close-up run in I’d have with Misha. Around the time that autographs were starting, I was on my way to the merchandise room when SUDDENLY, like HELLA SUDDENLY the door to the Green Room opened. As in, if I’d been one step quicker, it would have knocked me full force in the face. I of course went “WOAH!” quite loudly and jumped to the side - much to the amusement of Misha, who came out of that door. I said something along the lines of “That was close” and he chuckled and apologized, then started walking JUST AT THE SAME TIME as I also started walking again. We had a really good old-fashioned slapstick moment where he steps left, I step right, I step right, he steps left…. We just couldn’t seem to get past one another! LOL I swear, it was like we’d rehearsed it a thousand times and were doing it on purpose. Eventually, I laughed and just tried to brush past him - and what does Misha do? He raises his arms and spreads his legs so that he looks like a big human X and starts monkey dancing right in my way. Okay, not exactly monkey dancing maybe, heh, but very much blocking my way on purpose. The man takes such delight in his own silliness, it’s amazing. So I cracked up and went, “Well, are you gonna let me pass or what?” and he just grins and says “Nope!” It was too funny. Sadly, the stewards then arrived to take him away. But he turned around once more and waved as he left.
And then… well. Once the autographs were done, the dread closing ceremony started. I seriously almost cried because I didn’t want the weekend to be over. I could have carried on for another week. However, the one thing we didn’t expect was the announcement of Asylum Europe: Highway To Hell in May 2011, same venue, same date. YES YES YES YES OMG OMG OMFG YS!!!!! WHEEEE!!! I ran like hell as soon as everything was over to register for next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up having badge number one ^^
So then… this is it! Some more pictures coming soon in a separate post as soon as I get them off Kat.
S U N D A Y
We kicked off the last day with the M² panel, which was as wild and hilarious as expected. Before the start of the actual panel, a Cas!Bear was being raffled off for charity and Will Dunlop of Phoenix Copper art asked me to take the bag with the tickets on stage. I agreed, because hey, who am I to turn down a bonus five seconds in close proximity of Mark and Misha? Tehee. And so I stood by the side of the stage for the first few minutes until everything was ready, then went up and handed the bag to Misha - who gave me a very brief, but really beautiful (and confused! lol) smile of recognition (yay!). He obviously didn’t know what was going on and somehow Doug didn’t do a lot of explaining either, but in the end they figured out that they were supposed to pick a winner and so they did. Then the panel started and the zoologist came back for an encore and put Mark and Misha in an actual ring of salt up on stage. Things like that are always risky - I always kinda feel like they’re funnier in theory and if you’re unlucky, they can turn out extremely awkward. Thank God the boys totally ran with it, so it was cool. Misha stayed in the ring of salt like the good little angel that Cas is, whereas Mark got up and jumped and tap danced around and in and out of the circle SO FUCKING QUEEN-LIKE, we were all in stitches. They also mercilessly mocked a girl who had a very thick German accent. She asked them what being they’d play on SPN if they had to choose, but the way she said ‘to choose’ sounded like ‘two shoes’ and Misha of course picked up on that and… I suppose you can imagine the rest. Add Mark and you have the perfect, stomach-cramps-due-to-laughing kind of running gag. Also, when asked what MotW they’d like to play, Misha said ‘the cookie monster’ and Mark started talking like the cookie monster. Oh, and Misha explained Dean/Cas to Mark, LOL. And because he wasn’t sure the hotel staff would appreciate the ring of salt, Misha started cleaning it up at some point, haha.
Afterwards, I had a ticket for Misha’s coffee lounge, for which I was extremely excited. There were a few things I wanted to tell him (no TMI, relax!), so when I got there and instead of the 15-20 people that are meant to be at a coffee lounge there were quite a few more, I was honestly a little disappointed. I’ll admit, I booked the Sunday coffee lounge because I didn’t want my photos to clash with one of them, but apparently the Saturday coffee lounge was much smaller and so they just transferred the remaining Saturday tickets to Sunday. That’s just not cool because then we ended up sitting in a HUGE circle around Misha, some of us in a second row behind other people, and if you were sat opposite Misha in that big circle, you really had to be quiet and listen or you almost couldn’t hear him. It was still a worthwhile experience, but I just wish they’d kept the groups smaller and told people to suck it up in regards to the photos. I mean, if I’d been given the choice of coffee lounge or no coffee lounge, I’d have bitten the bullet and rushed around a lot more on the Saturday. Ah well. I’d bought tons of candy to get me through this weekend, and since we went outside to sit on the grass (crashing Mark’s coffee lounge in the process by walking right through it, LOL) and didn’t bring any food with us (or coffee, for that matter, lol), I offered my stuff to everyone and we shared my Russion bread and gummy bears. Misha kept one pack all for himself, I think? Or at least he was the very first one to grab it, haha. He talked about remodeling his house for a long time and also his old software company. Then asked about travel advice for Europe, as he’d be spending some more time here both privately and at conventions. I didn’t really have anything useful to contribute to Europe, but I told him that next time he goes to Australia for a con, he should either go to Taronga Zoo (Sydney) or Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. He said to me I should have told him that before he went to Australia and I said I didn’t think he’d keep failing to find a damn kangaroo because they’re literally EVERYWHERE, lol. The coffee lounge was of course over way too soon, like everything this weekend. We took a quick group photo, then that was it.
My other coffee lounge was Traci, which was just AWESOME! We were only 10 people, so it really was like sitting down outside on the grass with a bunch of buddies and just chilling out and yapping away. We talked about why Pamela was so well liked, what our previous favorite shows were, travel tips for America for Kat, and of course Traci brought her drum and at the end of the panel we sang “When I rise” together. I got to use the egg shakers, but uhm, I’m not the most musically gifted person in the world, lol, so I soon handed them over to Kat. At the end, we also took the group photo and Traci gave me a big, heartfelt hug goodbye. Siiigh, I’ll miss my gorgeous, gorgeous Groove Goddess!
Turns out though that the coffee lounge wasn’t the last close-up run in I’d have with Misha. Around the time that autographs were starting, I was on my way to the merchandise room when SUDDENLY, like HELLA SUDDENLY the door to the Green Room opened. As in, if I’d been one step quicker, it would have knocked me full force in the face. I of course went “WOAH!” quite loudly and jumped to the side - much to the amusement of Misha, who came out of that door. I said something along the lines of “That was close” and he chuckled and apologized, then started walking JUST AT THE SAME TIME as I also started walking again. We had a really good old-fashioned slapstick moment where he steps left, I step right, I step right, he steps left…. We just couldn’t seem to get past one another! LOL I swear, it was like we’d rehearsed it a thousand times and were doing it on purpose. Eventually, I laughed and just tried to brush past him - and what does Misha do? He raises his arms and spreads his legs so that he looks like a big human X and starts monkey dancing right in my way. Okay, not exactly monkey dancing maybe, heh, but very much blocking my way on purpose. The man takes such delight in his own silliness, it’s amazing. So I cracked up and went, “Well, are you gonna let me pass or what?” and he just grins and says “Nope!” It was too funny. Sadly, the stewards then arrived to take him away. But he turned around once more and waved as he left.
And then… well. Once the autographs were done, the dread closing ceremony started. I seriously almost cried because I didn’t want the weekend to be over. I could have carried on for another week. However, the one thing we didn’t expect was the announcement of Asylum Europe: Highway To Hell in May 2011, same venue, same date. YES YES YES YES OMG OMG OMFG YS!!!!! WHEEEE!!! I ran like hell as soon as everything was over to register for next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up having badge number one ^^
So then… this is it! Some more pictures coming soon in a separate post as soon as I get them off Kat.