The Rosie Ramble - Chicago - Part 2 - Saturday
Heres some more rambling from Chicago - illustrated again but not by much as the uploader doesnt seem to like many of the pictures...!
Saturday
James was the first of the Q and A’s today, so that at least meant we knew where we were starting. As I had the Creation experience ticket, I had a guaranteed seat, so didn’t need to line up - but still did for company. As the hall for the Q and A’s was off to the side, you didn’t need to go into the actual convention hall to get in, so everyone just started the line up. I however still had to buy my photo ops for the day so did need to go in, so went off to join the big line up again. I walked into the big room and thought - “oh, it’s not as bad as yesterday” - WRONG! They were doing the up and down line in the second half of the hall as well! It took me over 40 minutes of shuffling up and down (exercise for the day!) and reading everyone’s t-shirt slogans before I finally got into the main dealer room - where I walked down to Froggy’s, bought my photo ops and then went straight back out to join the others in the Q and A line up again. Total time that took? Less than 5 minutes!
They were very late letting everyone into the hall - ticket holders first. I had a front row seat as the expected auction of the front row never happened, so they just did away with it - I was off to the right of the stage and it was very close to us, so I was going to be craning my neck. Jean was 2 seats away from me and there were a couple of brothers sitting in between us. They very kindly let me move up and sit by Jean as I was only going to be there for James’s Q and A.
They played the hilarious Spike video I’ve seen before at Creation events before James was announced and came on stage. He was wearing a black v-neck jersey-type top and had his hair quite severely slicked back. As we all cheered and whooped his arrival, James looked out at the hall and how everyone was sitting - The front half of the room was sort of dotted with various people and then the back half was full of the regular ticket holders - and looking very bemused asked “What the hell is going on??” Long pause “Everyone at the back come forward!!”
It was hilarious - the Creation guy looked horrified, but there was nothing he could do as everyone at the back of the hall (and the further back Creation seats) all immediately swept forward and scrambled to fill in all the available spare chairs! Brilliant! Typical James - doesn’t give a hoot about carefully planned and allotted seating and I can’t blame him at all - it must be very strange and disconcerting to look out over a hall with a few people at the scattered across the front half and everyone else jammed in at the back!
Whilst people were moving and getting settled, James sat at the table where there was a table mic and told us about how he adored Rachel Maddow ( the political commentator and TV presenter) and how much he admired her and that he had been going online and commenting on her blog the night before!
I have to say James looked very tired and not at his best. He actually sat at the table for most of the Q and A (though he did perch on the back of the chair for a while) instead of doing his normal roaming about. He was being more careful of his hand which was still bandaged up and looking a bit more swollen than the day before. None of it impacted on his performance though - he was as fun and lovely as ever. Again, there wasn’t anything new to report from the questions but also as usual, I don’t mind if I’ve heard the stories before - they are new to the people who asked the questions and its all James time - what’s not to like??
The hour went pretty speedily and I took lots of pictures - not the greatest cos of the angle I was at with James sitting down and the mic getting in the way - but all good stuff. After it was over, a large proportion of the crowd upped and left (the Creation guy was telling everyone that they had to go back to their allotted seats now. He didn’t want any more of that kind of anarchy thank you very much!) and I slipped my wristband and pass off and gave them to Colleen for her to use for the rest of the day as there was no one else I was interested in seeing and it seemed a waste when someone else could use it.
The main dealer hall was absolutely packed! Heaving with people - it took some determined wriggling in and out to get anywhere at all. Everywhere was like it and every guest had long lines. I didn’t even attempt to try and see James for an autograph today - it was just too crazy. Magie did go up and see him and I did my best to take as many pics as I could before we got moved. I know we did have a bit of a look around but decided to go back to the hotel for lunch (they were selling hotdogs outside for charity so we went there) to get a bit of peace and breathing space.
We did have to go back in to do photo ops with James (and some others!) later in the afternoon and of course his lines were pretty busy. Magie, Amy Sue and I were doing our usual group picture (it’s become tradition when we are all together) so were going last. I had 2 individuals as well so did them first. The line was going through very rapidly so it was soon my turn with James. He smiled as he saw me coming over and we hugged, but didn’t really talk as he still seemed pretty tired. The first shot I asked to do it so we were both looking back over our shoulders at the camera “If it will work” I added and James replied “yeah - that’ll work”. Uh - sorry James - no it didn’t!!! Well, not for me with my round shoulders and because I was wearing a shirt with a collar and that position just accentuates the extra chins - not good at all. James, of course, looked great!
The second one I asked if James would be as though he was going to kiss my hand. The plan was for me to look all haughty and disinterested - but that went right out the window the minute James looked up at me from under his eyelashes as he held my hand to his lips!! There was no way I was able to look disinterested in the face of that - so I ended up doing a delighted sort of smirk! (I’ve tried to do that pose before and the same thing happened then too - maybe third time lucky??)
We hugged afterwards as I said thank you (always lovely however brief!) and I went back round to join the end of the queue again for our group picture. Magie had disappeared off to get a friend of hers who was one of the dealers and we didn’t think she was going to make it back in time as Steve was saying James was going as soon as the line was gone, so we were quickly debating putting off the group picture until the next day, but luckily they just made it back in time. James by now was looking very tired and weary and that’s when I feel guilty about asking anything of him. Our planned pose wasn’t a difficult one though - we had James looking like he had just said something very naughty - Magie had her hand covering his mouth and looking shocked and both Amy Sue and I were also looking horrified too. It did work out pretty well and was a bit of fun. He wasn’t going to stay around to talk afterwards today, that was obvious, and so as soon as we were done we just got out of the way.
With a little time to kill before having to get ready for the party, I had another look around at the dealers and had to succumb to buying a purple t-shirt with a picture of an open book on it and the legend “The Guild of Radical Militant Librarians” (motto in Latin translates roughly as “We know what you’re reading but we wont tell!”) as its perfect for wearing to work meetings…!
Then it was back to the hotel room to change for the party. It wasn’t a long journey to get to since it was in the restaurant of the hotel opposite ours! In fact we were in a private room and we had to wait in the lobby whilst Tonie - who had done the entire local organisation for the party - sorted out the last few details. It was 10 round tables for people to sit at and being one of the first in, we took the second table by the little stage bit. And then we had to go and admire the absolutely amazing birthday cake Tonie had had made (which lots of people had chipped in to help pay for) - a full-size replica of Chow (aka Bruce) the guitar - absolutely perfectly done with all the details down to the exact colour blue and the yellow “Marsters Mobsters” guitar pick! And all the green paper napkins said “Happy Birthday James from your friends” in silver which was lovely.
Steve went to get James and we were all ready when he brought him into the room. He was back in a black v-neck t shirt again. We all sang him Happy Birthday and he looked very pleased yet embarrassed by it - so cute! He did a little speech (and the first thing he did was to apologise yet again for the event in LA!) and thanked us all for coming - and then had to apologise that there would be no concert as he couldn’t play because of his hand - he said he had just spent 2 hours trying to hold a pick! Disappointing but completely understandable, so Steve said they would try and make it up to us with more James time! He was down the far end of the room from me so I couldn’t really see to take pictures and it was difficult to hear what he said - but he looked very touched by it all and he loved the Chow cake - said it felt like cannibalism to be cutting into it! He did some very nifty moves with the knife, flipping it in the air before pretending to stab it!
Steve then announced that James was going to be in the SyFy pilot show called Three Inches which would be filming in Toronto the following week - which was the thing James couldn’t tell us about the day before! We were the first to hear it and of course we all whooped with delight - great news!
At this point I have to mention the two really loud, rude and incredibly obnoxious blondes that were sitting together at one of the other tables. They didn’t actually arrive together but combined they were a nightmare. Whooping and shrieking all the time - which was partly why I couldn’t hear what James was saying down the far end of the room - calling out comments that got more and more objectionable as the evening went on - to Steve as well as James. They were asked politely by JM people and not so politely by some of the other fans to be quiet throughout the evening, but they never really did. Alcohol was probably involved but it doesn’t excuse their appalling behaviour and rudeness.
It was photos with Froggy first and as he was doing them right there at the side of the room with us, it meant we could all watch and take pictures ourselves! We were called up a table at a time and for this our table was about fourth up. It was lovely being able to watch everyone’s photo ops and seeing people’s different reactions before going up for my own pictures.
James was being as gracious and lovely as ever with everyone, but I thought he was still looking tired and was sweating a bit - his t-shirt was certainly a bit damp when we hugged! I just cuddled up to him for the first picture which was the easiest option (James sweat is absolutely fine with me!) but for the second asked if I could be kissing his bad hand better. He was fine with that and sort of gave me his hand, but when I very gently tried to work out how to take hold of it, he flinched so I let go and asked “How do you want me to hold it? - I don’t want to hurt you!” His reply was “Don’t hold it at all!” so I kind of held my hands out together palms up and James lay his hand on them so I was scarcely touching him, and then I went in fairly close as though I was going to kiss it. That came out as quite a sweet picture - me kissing his boo-boo better!! We exchanged another gentle hug and I got the most beautiful smile before I moved away.
So then I indulged in my absolute favourite activity - taking photos of James! As many as I could of him with other people, especially once he was seated at his little table to do autographs with everybody as it was a much better angle. The only thing wrong with the venue was the sucky lighting (my usual complaint!) and as usual I didn’t start using flash early enough - so a lot of the pics I did get were OK but could have been better. But I still had so much fun taking pictures. I didn’t sit down much - I was all over the place trying different angles and trying to get closer. Some of the girls sitting at the table right next to where James was signing were sitting with their backs to him just talking and not even really noticing him! I would have been facing the other way and glued to that seat for the duration - why would you want to do anything else other than just stare at the utter gorgeousnes when James was in the vicinity??
In the middle of the autographing, Iesha took the microphone to read out the hilarious poem she had written for his birthday - an Ode to James’s hair! It was brilliant - funny, witty and spot on - James was laughing his head off all the way through as Iesha’s delivery of it was fabulous, really bringing it to life and reducing the entire room to hysterics. The line that sticks out for me was “...I’m a hair porn slut!” So say we all!
Again, we were called up by table and this time we ended up being the last to go. Earlier, Steve was letting people have longer talking with James but as he got more agitated about the numbers still to go as the time was passing and he was starting to speed people up, I knew we were going to get much less than some of the others. Magie went up a couple of people in front of me and even when Steve was making time-to-go signs, she wasn’t hearing him even when he was getting more and more insistent. I called out that he should just pick her up and move her - and he did! Kind of - firmly took hold of her shoulders and bodily moved her out of the chair - really funny!
My turn just seemed to go in a flash. James was grinning up at me and I remembered to hold out my left hand for him to shake as he said “Hey Rosie!” and I sat down. I passed him one of the black and white pictures I had taken (from the Valentines concert) fro him to sign and when he put “All is Love” on it and remarked it was from his favourite film of the moment “Where the Wild Things Are” and he loved the song from the sound track which I knew was sung by Arcade Fire - it seemed the perfect moment to give him his little birthday present (I realised I couldn’t go to his party empty handed!) which was a promo CD single by them. James immediately started singing the song to me, which was lovely. I know we did talk about something else but I can’t remember what now! And before I knew it, Steve was running his hands up and down my arms to gentle try and move me! It felt like I had had about 10 seconds with James and I protested “I’ve only just got here Steve!” and James was laughing at me as I tried to ignore his attempts to move me along (and failed!) So we shook (left) hands again across the table and I said something like “It’s just so wonderful to see you” and James just gave me this most amazing smile. It was mostly with his eyes and it almost stunned me on the spot - stopped me talking anyway! It was so genuine and natural and I felt it right through me - a wonderful feeling right down to my toes! Yet again our hands seemed to automatically move to clasp round each other with our thumbs interlocking and we both squeezed as I was still looking into those incredible eyes. It may have been fleeting, but it was wonderful!
(photo by jjwintle)
There was only a few people to see James after me and then Steve let him go off to use the bathroom (those were his words) and whilst we were waiting for him to come back and do a bit of a Q and A/discussion, Steve took the microphone, made his way onto the little stage right by us and sat in one of the two easy chairs that were up and asked if anyone had any questions they wanted to ask him about James whilst he was out of the room (!) - but in fact it ended up being a little impromptu Q and A with Steve as we wanted to know about him instead! He told us a bit about how he started being a manager and when asked what his strangest fan experience had been, he said that always really surprised him that fans were at all interested in him - he shouldn’t really be noticed. He did like it but didn’t really get it!
Then James came back and took over from Steve. The first thing he did was to snuggle down in the easy chair and get comfy. Not that he stayed there for long - he was soon up on his feet again and moving around. The questions at the private events are always more interesting and varied and it was a good session - though I can’t really recall any of the questions right now! I do remember him talking about immigration and the Arizona state laws and making a lot of sense. Unfortunately I do remember the two obnoxious blondes, one asking about getting his music and then going on and on and not letting James move on to another question cos it was all about her and sod everyone else; and also them shouting out to James to “Take it off” (after which a very audible snarl of “Shut Up!” was clearly heard from the back of the room) That was the point when I really wanted to say something - or better still forcibly remove them - and I know I wasn’t alone. James as ever dealt with it beautifully by ignoring them completely, but their appalling behaviour and lack of manners really spoiled what was otherwise a wonderful event. (I think we were all incredibly restrained - and believe me, even the most mild-mannered of fans attending were all for throwing them both straight out on their skanky asses - because James was there and we didn’t want to embarrass him by making a scene about them.)
James finished the evening by singing for us the one song he could do without the guitar - the Cowboy Song which he sang beautifully and with much feeling - lovely end to the evening. James was whisked away by Steve as we all yelled for more and then it was all over. A great event all round, despite no concert, with plenty of James - only marred by the appalling behaviour of a couple of people. Now that James had left the building (uh-huh-uh!), on seeing one of the pair on the way out, Magie turned back, went up to her and had a few choice words about her behaviour - and she wasn’t the only one! People sat at the table with them had constantly tried to shut them up throughout the evening - first politely and then with more force, but to no avail, because the sad thing is that this girl really couldn’t understand why people were upset - she seemed to think her behaviour was perfectly reasonable!
We made our long weary way back to our hotel room (about 100 yards…!) and then had food, drinks and a thorough reminisce about the whole evening - including much squeeing about the Three Inches pilot. It was a good day.
Huge thanks and big squishes to Tonie for organising the party and the cake and doing a great job all round - it was really appreciated.
Saturday
James was the first of the Q and A’s today, so that at least meant we knew where we were starting. As I had the Creation experience ticket, I had a guaranteed seat, so didn’t need to line up - but still did for company. As the hall for the Q and A’s was off to the side, you didn’t need to go into the actual convention hall to get in, so everyone just started the line up. I however still had to buy my photo ops for the day so did need to go in, so went off to join the big line up again. I walked into the big room and thought - “oh, it’s not as bad as yesterday” - WRONG! They were doing the up and down line in the second half of the hall as well! It took me over 40 minutes of shuffling up and down (exercise for the day!) and reading everyone’s t-shirt slogans before I finally got into the main dealer room - where I walked down to Froggy’s, bought my photo ops and then went straight back out to join the others in the Q and A line up again. Total time that took? Less than 5 minutes!
They were very late letting everyone into the hall - ticket holders first. I had a front row seat as the expected auction of the front row never happened, so they just did away with it - I was off to the right of the stage and it was very close to us, so I was going to be craning my neck. Jean was 2 seats away from me and there were a couple of brothers sitting in between us. They very kindly let me move up and sit by Jean as I was only going to be there for James’s Q and A.
They played the hilarious Spike video I’ve seen before at Creation events before James was announced and came on stage. He was wearing a black v-neck jersey-type top and had his hair quite severely slicked back. As we all cheered and whooped his arrival, James looked out at the hall and how everyone was sitting - The front half of the room was sort of dotted with various people and then the back half was full of the regular ticket holders - and looking very bemused asked “What the hell is going on??” Long pause “Everyone at the back come forward!!”
It was hilarious - the Creation guy looked horrified, but there was nothing he could do as everyone at the back of the hall (and the further back Creation seats) all immediately swept forward and scrambled to fill in all the available spare chairs! Brilliant! Typical James - doesn’t give a hoot about carefully planned and allotted seating and I can’t blame him at all - it must be very strange and disconcerting to look out over a hall with a few people at the scattered across the front half and everyone else jammed in at the back!
Whilst people were moving and getting settled, James sat at the table where there was a table mic and told us about how he adored Rachel Maddow ( the political commentator and TV presenter) and how much he admired her and that he had been going online and commenting on her blog the night before!
I have to say James looked very tired and not at his best. He actually sat at the table for most of the Q and A (though he did perch on the back of the chair for a while) instead of doing his normal roaming about. He was being more careful of his hand which was still bandaged up and looking a bit more swollen than the day before. None of it impacted on his performance though - he was as fun and lovely as ever. Again, there wasn’t anything new to report from the questions but also as usual, I don’t mind if I’ve heard the stories before - they are new to the people who asked the questions and its all James time - what’s not to like??
The hour went pretty speedily and I took lots of pictures - not the greatest cos of the angle I was at with James sitting down and the mic getting in the way - but all good stuff. After it was over, a large proportion of the crowd upped and left (the Creation guy was telling everyone that they had to go back to their allotted seats now. He didn’t want any more of that kind of anarchy thank you very much!) and I slipped my wristband and pass off and gave them to Colleen for her to use for the rest of the day as there was no one else I was interested in seeing and it seemed a waste when someone else could use it.
The main dealer hall was absolutely packed! Heaving with people - it took some determined wriggling in and out to get anywhere at all. Everywhere was like it and every guest had long lines. I didn’t even attempt to try and see James for an autograph today - it was just too crazy. Magie did go up and see him and I did my best to take as many pics as I could before we got moved. I know we did have a bit of a look around but decided to go back to the hotel for lunch (they were selling hotdogs outside for charity so we went there) to get a bit of peace and breathing space.
We did have to go back in to do photo ops with James (and some others!) later in the afternoon and of course his lines were pretty busy. Magie, Amy Sue and I were doing our usual group picture (it’s become tradition when we are all together) so were going last. I had 2 individuals as well so did them first. The line was going through very rapidly so it was soon my turn with James. He smiled as he saw me coming over and we hugged, but didn’t really talk as he still seemed pretty tired. The first shot I asked to do it so we were both looking back over our shoulders at the camera “If it will work” I added and James replied “yeah - that’ll work”. Uh - sorry James - no it didn’t!!! Well, not for me with my round shoulders and because I was wearing a shirt with a collar and that position just accentuates the extra chins - not good at all. James, of course, looked great!
The second one I asked if James would be as though he was going to kiss my hand. The plan was for me to look all haughty and disinterested - but that went right out the window the minute James looked up at me from under his eyelashes as he held my hand to his lips!! There was no way I was able to look disinterested in the face of that - so I ended up doing a delighted sort of smirk! (I’ve tried to do that pose before and the same thing happened then too - maybe third time lucky??)
We hugged afterwards as I said thank you (always lovely however brief!) and I went back round to join the end of the queue again for our group picture. Magie had disappeared off to get a friend of hers who was one of the dealers and we didn’t think she was going to make it back in time as Steve was saying James was going as soon as the line was gone, so we were quickly debating putting off the group picture until the next day, but luckily they just made it back in time. James by now was looking very tired and weary and that’s when I feel guilty about asking anything of him. Our planned pose wasn’t a difficult one though - we had James looking like he had just said something very naughty - Magie had her hand covering his mouth and looking shocked and both Amy Sue and I were also looking horrified too. It did work out pretty well and was a bit of fun. He wasn’t going to stay around to talk afterwards today, that was obvious, and so as soon as we were done we just got out of the way.
With a little time to kill before having to get ready for the party, I had another look around at the dealers and had to succumb to buying a purple t-shirt with a picture of an open book on it and the legend “The Guild of Radical Militant Librarians” (motto in Latin translates roughly as “We know what you’re reading but we wont tell!”) as its perfect for wearing to work meetings…!
Then it was back to the hotel room to change for the party. It wasn’t a long journey to get to since it was in the restaurant of the hotel opposite ours! In fact we were in a private room and we had to wait in the lobby whilst Tonie - who had done the entire local organisation for the party - sorted out the last few details. It was 10 round tables for people to sit at and being one of the first in, we took the second table by the little stage bit. And then we had to go and admire the absolutely amazing birthday cake Tonie had had made (which lots of people had chipped in to help pay for) - a full-size replica of Chow (aka Bruce) the guitar - absolutely perfectly done with all the details down to the exact colour blue and the yellow “Marsters Mobsters” guitar pick! And all the green paper napkins said “Happy Birthday James from your friends” in silver which was lovely.
Steve went to get James and we were all ready when he brought him into the room. He was back in a black v-neck t shirt again. We all sang him Happy Birthday and he looked very pleased yet embarrassed by it - so cute! He did a little speech (and the first thing he did was to apologise yet again for the event in LA!) and thanked us all for coming - and then had to apologise that there would be no concert as he couldn’t play because of his hand - he said he had just spent 2 hours trying to hold a pick! Disappointing but completely understandable, so Steve said they would try and make it up to us with more James time! He was down the far end of the room from me so I couldn’t really see to take pictures and it was difficult to hear what he said - but he looked very touched by it all and he loved the Chow cake - said it felt like cannibalism to be cutting into it! He did some very nifty moves with the knife, flipping it in the air before pretending to stab it!
Steve then announced that James was going to be in the SyFy pilot show called Three Inches which would be filming in Toronto the following week - which was the thing James couldn’t tell us about the day before! We were the first to hear it and of course we all whooped with delight - great news!
At this point I have to mention the two really loud, rude and incredibly obnoxious blondes that were sitting together at one of the other tables. They didn’t actually arrive together but combined they were a nightmare. Whooping and shrieking all the time - which was partly why I couldn’t hear what James was saying down the far end of the room - calling out comments that got more and more objectionable as the evening went on - to Steve as well as James. They were asked politely by JM people and not so politely by some of the other fans to be quiet throughout the evening, but they never really did. Alcohol was probably involved but it doesn’t excuse their appalling behaviour and rudeness.
It was photos with Froggy first and as he was doing them right there at the side of the room with us, it meant we could all watch and take pictures ourselves! We were called up a table at a time and for this our table was about fourth up. It was lovely being able to watch everyone’s photo ops and seeing people’s different reactions before going up for my own pictures.
James was being as gracious and lovely as ever with everyone, but I thought he was still looking tired and was sweating a bit - his t-shirt was certainly a bit damp when we hugged! I just cuddled up to him for the first picture which was the easiest option (James sweat is absolutely fine with me!) but for the second asked if I could be kissing his bad hand better. He was fine with that and sort of gave me his hand, but when I very gently tried to work out how to take hold of it, he flinched so I let go and asked “How do you want me to hold it? - I don’t want to hurt you!” His reply was “Don’t hold it at all!” so I kind of held my hands out together palms up and James lay his hand on them so I was scarcely touching him, and then I went in fairly close as though I was going to kiss it. That came out as quite a sweet picture - me kissing his boo-boo better!! We exchanged another gentle hug and I got the most beautiful smile before I moved away.
So then I indulged in my absolute favourite activity - taking photos of James! As many as I could of him with other people, especially once he was seated at his little table to do autographs with everybody as it was a much better angle. The only thing wrong with the venue was the sucky lighting (my usual complaint!) and as usual I didn’t start using flash early enough - so a lot of the pics I did get were OK but could have been better. But I still had so much fun taking pictures. I didn’t sit down much - I was all over the place trying different angles and trying to get closer. Some of the girls sitting at the table right next to where James was signing were sitting with their backs to him just talking and not even really noticing him! I would have been facing the other way and glued to that seat for the duration - why would you want to do anything else other than just stare at the utter gorgeousnes when James was in the vicinity??
In the middle of the autographing, Iesha took the microphone to read out the hilarious poem she had written for his birthday - an Ode to James’s hair! It was brilliant - funny, witty and spot on - James was laughing his head off all the way through as Iesha’s delivery of it was fabulous, really bringing it to life and reducing the entire room to hysterics. The line that sticks out for me was “...I’m a hair porn slut!” So say we all!
Again, we were called up by table and this time we ended up being the last to go. Earlier, Steve was letting people have longer talking with James but as he got more agitated about the numbers still to go as the time was passing and he was starting to speed people up, I knew we were going to get much less than some of the others. Magie went up a couple of people in front of me and even when Steve was making time-to-go signs, she wasn’t hearing him even when he was getting more and more insistent. I called out that he should just pick her up and move her - and he did! Kind of - firmly took hold of her shoulders and bodily moved her out of the chair - really funny!
My turn just seemed to go in a flash. James was grinning up at me and I remembered to hold out my left hand for him to shake as he said “Hey Rosie!” and I sat down. I passed him one of the black and white pictures I had taken (from the Valentines concert) fro him to sign and when he put “All is Love” on it and remarked it was from his favourite film of the moment “Where the Wild Things Are” and he loved the song from the sound track which I knew was sung by Arcade Fire - it seemed the perfect moment to give him his little birthday present (I realised I couldn’t go to his party empty handed!) which was a promo CD single by them. James immediately started singing the song to me, which was lovely. I know we did talk about something else but I can’t remember what now! And before I knew it, Steve was running his hands up and down my arms to gentle try and move me! It felt like I had had about 10 seconds with James and I protested “I’ve only just got here Steve!” and James was laughing at me as I tried to ignore his attempts to move me along (and failed!) So we shook (left) hands again across the table and I said something like “It’s just so wonderful to see you” and James just gave me this most amazing smile. It was mostly with his eyes and it almost stunned me on the spot - stopped me talking anyway! It was so genuine and natural and I felt it right through me - a wonderful feeling right down to my toes! Yet again our hands seemed to automatically move to clasp round each other with our thumbs interlocking and we both squeezed as I was still looking into those incredible eyes. It may have been fleeting, but it was wonderful!
(photo by jjwintle)
There was only a few people to see James after me and then Steve let him go off to use the bathroom (those were his words) and whilst we were waiting for him to come back and do a bit of a Q and A/discussion, Steve took the microphone, made his way onto the little stage right by us and sat in one of the two easy chairs that were up and asked if anyone had any questions they wanted to ask him about James whilst he was out of the room (!) - but in fact it ended up being a little impromptu Q and A with Steve as we wanted to know about him instead! He told us a bit about how he started being a manager and when asked what his strangest fan experience had been, he said that always really surprised him that fans were at all interested in him - he shouldn’t really be noticed. He did like it but didn’t really get it!
Then James came back and took over from Steve. The first thing he did was to snuggle down in the easy chair and get comfy. Not that he stayed there for long - he was soon up on his feet again and moving around. The questions at the private events are always more interesting and varied and it was a good session - though I can’t really recall any of the questions right now! I do remember him talking about immigration and the Arizona state laws and making a lot of sense. Unfortunately I do remember the two obnoxious blondes, one asking about getting his music and then going on and on and not letting James move on to another question cos it was all about her and sod everyone else; and also them shouting out to James to “Take it off” (after which a very audible snarl of “Shut Up!” was clearly heard from the back of the room) That was the point when I really wanted to say something - or better still forcibly remove them - and I know I wasn’t alone. James as ever dealt with it beautifully by ignoring them completely, but their appalling behaviour and lack of manners really spoiled what was otherwise a wonderful event. (I think we were all incredibly restrained - and believe me, even the most mild-mannered of fans attending were all for throwing them both straight out on their skanky asses - because James was there and we didn’t want to embarrass him by making a scene about them.)
James finished the evening by singing for us the one song he could do without the guitar - the Cowboy Song which he sang beautifully and with much feeling - lovely end to the evening. James was whisked away by Steve as we all yelled for more and then it was all over. A great event all round, despite no concert, with plenty of James - only marred by the appalling behaviour of a couple of people. Now that James had left the building (uh-huh-uh!), on seeing one of the pair on the way out, Magie turned back, went up to her and had a few choice words about her behaviour - and she wasn’t the only one! People sat at the table with them had constantly tried to shut them up throughout the evening - first politely and then with more force, but to no avail, because the sad thing is that this girl really couldn’t understand why people were upset - she seemed to think her behaviour was perfectly reasonable!
We made our long weary way back to our hotel room (about 100 yards…!) and then had food, drinks and a thorough reminisce about the whole evening - including much squeeing about the Three Inches pilot. It was a good day.
Huge thanks and big squishes to Tonie for organising the party and the cake and doing a great job all round - it was really appreciated.