The Rosie Ramble - New York Comic Con - Part 1
I've been slaving over a hot PC for what seems like weeks and so far I've managed to write up the first part of New York CC. I'm going to be old and grey by the time Ive finished this lot if it keeps going on like this!! but here it is anyway...
Rosie Goes to See James at New York Comic Con
Thursday 7th October
Fifth US trip this year and two James appearances to look forward too! Squee! It was nice to be doing a direct flight for once to Newark - I seem to have done all connections for the last few times - and it also seemed very short. Caught up on some TV, wrote some notes and was soon over the pond. Unfortunately I had one of those times (and this always seems to happen at Newark) where I got put in a very slow line for immigration and then moved to another one when ours didn’t shift at all and despite having well up in the initial queue, was one of the last to get out of the immigration hall - people who had been a good 100 people behind me in the line got through first. Hey ho - that’s the way it goes sometimes. My suitcase was on the carousel so I grabbed it and legged it out to the arrivals hall - and there was Louisa, waiting for me holding a bunch of colourful balloons with a special Welcome one! I was so touched it all! I’ve hardly ever been met at an airport, I usually just make my own way and so this was delightful and very special. She also had a taxi to drive me to my hotel (the balloons nearly escaped from the trunk in the wind when we got there, but the driver just snagged them before they could fly away!) and came in to help me get settled. Then we went out to eat at a very nice Italian restaurant called Patsy’s - quite old fashioned and perhaps a bit stuffy (very chilly, snooty waiters!) but great food and the fact that we didn’t hold back and were trying various different dishes had the waiters thawing a bit towards us! We were eating pretty early, so for a bit were the only diners, and then the place really filled up with the pre-theatre crowd. I found out afterwards that it was supposedly Frank Sinatra’s favourite restaurant, was very well known and had been there for about fifty years - which explained a lot!
Back in my hotel room, having arranged to meet at the con the next day I saw Louisa off in a cab to go back home. Then I discovered she had arranged for a huge basket of goodies to be delivered for me - full of fruit, crackers, cookies, cheese and chocolate - as another surprise! I had to take a picture before I could open it and then it was like Christmas, breaking into it and sampling things. Crazy, wonderful, generous friend Louisa!
Friday 8th October
No hurry this morning as the con didn’t open until 1pm and it was only a block and a half from my hotel to the Javits centre. I found a really nice diner for breakfast, which turned out to be right by where I would be catching my bus to Boston on the following Thursday and then a leisurely time gathering everything up for the con. It was busy in the Javits even with a couple of hours to go until it was open to the public. I collected my pass (although they had to get me one as apparently mine had been mailed to me - despite it saying that all international orders would have to be collected. Its still hasn’t arrived….!) I then did some reconnaissance work and found out where the Q and A rooms were as they were outside the dealer hall- the one where James would be wasn’t that huge and I then checked with the volunteers what the room clearing policy was (apart from before Stan Lee’s panel, the room wouldn’t be cleared in between) and then walked to the other end and looked in where the autographs were going to be. Couldn’t see James’s name up, but hoped he would be on an end as it makes it easier to take pictures. Then I familiarised myself with the map and found J&J’s booth as they probably had Froggy with them and I needed to buy photo ops. I passed some time doing a survey for a teaching school (that was interesting!) before going down to join the line up to get in. It was like Chicago all over again -long snaking lines in a huge room downstairs - but more organised, with barriers. And once the doors opened, it moved fairly fast - and being on my own meant I could slide in between people. Whilst the line was moving along - Stan Lee walked through the hall with his minders and, as they say, the crowd went wild! He was pretty much walking along parallel with me, which was a bit of a waste as I wasn’t bothered. It did mean that I could make faster progress though as everyone rushed to the side to take pictures and I just kept going!
Having wound around and up and down escalators, I was finally in the dealer room and made a bee line for J &J, where I found Froggy’s helper Matt who sold me some photo ops. Also got to hug Jeff, and he told me that the organisers had thought that they were having James sign in their booth. He did tell them, they happily would, but they didn’t think that NYCC would like it when the whole end of the dealer room got completely blocked up! So they had put James in the autograph area, albeit at the last minute.
I went over there next as it took a little while - typically J&J were about as far way from the autograph lines as it was possible to get - you had to allow a good ten minutes plus to negotiate your way between the two. Having made my way there, it was fairly quiet as a lot of people weren’t signing that first day. There were a few people in James’s line already - I was about 8th - so I just plonked myself down and prepare to wait as he wasn’t going to be there until a bit later. Quite quickly his line started to grow and soon ran out of its allotted area (As usual, the con organisers underestimated James’s appeal over the weekend. He had no big picture or banner up and yet his was always one of the busiest lines. The actors in the middle with big signs and much advertising often had no one there, whilst James’s line was doubling back on itself - twice! It would have been utter chaos if he had been in J&J’s booth)
Eventually, James, Steve and the team arrived. James was in a gorgeous mid-blue t-shirt that looked stunning on him and his hair was distinctly straight. I’d been prepared for that having seen the pictures from the GOTR gig the week before, but it still took a bit of getting used to. Bring back the curls I say!
Being so far up the line, I was soon up with Steve, and I had the delightful task of telling him he owed me $250! (the money from the DragonCon party that wasn’t) He did remember as it would explain the accounting discrepancy he was having, and said to see him later. It’s not often you get Steve to give you money so I enjoyed the moment! (Not that I had it long - it pretty much immediately went back to him in the form of photo ops and an autograph…!) And then it was my turn to see James.
He was just saying to the lady in front (who was a newbie) “Welcome to our circus” and I put in “You mean “Welcome to our weirdness!””
“Hey Rosie!” said James with a big grin, holding his hand out.
“Hey sweetie” was my reply and then as we shook hands James murmured “How you doing darlin’?”
I replied “Fine - how’s the hand?” as he slid it out of mine and onto the table.
“Much better. All better.” Pause “I’m onto a new wound now!”
“What’s the new wound?” I had to ask!
“Uh…” James paused, tapping the side of his face with one finger and umm-ed a bit and then asked me “What is it when a tooth goes really bad and blows up?”
“Abscess?”
“Yup!” he grinned and gave me a thumbs up.
“Oh no - oh God…”
“So...” James was signing my picture now “...I was in the dentist’s chair yesterday”
I was making all sorts of “oh God!” noises and he laughed at me and said “I’ve never had one before and he poked it and it was like…” and he did this fabulous “Yeeuck!” face with hand actions miming his reaction to what I assume was a burst abscess, whilst I was going “Eww!”
I added “No, I’ve never had one - thank God! That’s nobody’s idea of fun is it?”
“No, not at all. And apparently if you fly with one you can really risk your life or something” James just gave an unconcerned shrug and handed my picture back, then clasped his hands on the table in front of him and said “That’s my wound of the week!” with a big smile which cracked me up!
I then gave him his gift of a t-shirt “Just for a laugh really. Have a look”
“Oh love it” (and that was before he had unfolded it and seen what it said - black t-shirt with “Trainee Stormtrooper” on the front) and when he did see it, I got the full on James giggle as he leaned over sideways laughing “I will wear that! Hell, yeah! Trainee Stormtrooper…!”and there was more giggling.
Then I asked jokingly “Did you miss me last Saturday?” and James made a bit of a sad face - “I did! You missed…it was not announced until much later.”
“James, I really considered flying out from England on the Saturday, doing the gig and then flying home Sunday. I was seriously considering it!” (James was silently laughing his head off at this!) “And then common sense kind of beat that idea to death…”
“The thing is, Sullivan and his band did so well - they’re going to warm up for us next time. We may be at The Mint later on - we’ll announce that as soon as we know”
“Yeah, the geography is a bit of a pain for me for this one!”
“Uh - yeah!” agreed James
“And I’m still jealous now, six days later!”
“It’s all up on YouTube!”
“I watched it all the next day. But it’s not the same as being there!”
“Not at all” James concurred and I added “Someone said “I expect James missed you” and I said “He wouldn’t have noticed, he was too busy being proud of Sullivan””
James made a slightly sad face “No man - I was looking for you actually” and he mimed looking each way “Where’s Rosie?” (very sweet, but I’m not sure I believe him - I think he had far more important things on his mind that night!)
I then added “Sullivan was fabulous, so cool!” - James’s face immediately lit up - “He was such a cool dude!”
“He was awesome! Just amazing!” James was super-proud dad! Then he glanced at the line and added “Oops, I should keep going!” and offered me his hand which I took as I replied “Yup, you better” and our handshake as ever turned into a mutual hand clasp - we both seem to do it automatically now! “I’ll see you a bit later in the photos”
“I hope so” and James kept on smiling at me as I turned to leave (one day I’m really going to fall over something when he does that cos I just can’t tear my eyes away…!)
As there was nobody at the table on the right next to James, I walked back up that aisle and started taking pictures from there. It was great - excellent fairly close spot and no problems about staying there so I could indulge in my favourite pastime of photographing the deeply pretty man - which I did for quite a while. And then some from the other side too as that table was also free!
It was then getting on towards 4pm which is when James’s photo ops were scheduled to take place. Having met up with Louisa in James’s auto line, we made our way over to J&J’s where Louisa could pick up her photo op tickets and we decided to do one together as well. Froggy’s booth was a little tiny curtained off area next to J&J’s and the line had to form across to the next aisle and not block any thoroughfares. After a hasty beautifying in the bathroom, and putting on my shrug (No 1 rule of my photo ops - no fat arms!!) I was ready.
Having handed my tickets to Steve, I had to wait until the person before me had left the area as it was so tiny and I only had to take about one step in to be standing next to James. His face lit up when he saw me and he grinned in delight - so good when his face goes from the friendly smile to the full-on grin when he recognises who is next - “Hey, it’s Rosie!” I think we just shook hands this time and as I had a picture for reference for the first one, I showed it him. It was actually one from a shoot of him with Emma Caulfield with his arm tight round her neck. Although he consulted the pic, it wasn’t right as we ended up the other way round and far too straight on to the camera, but hey - a James hug even for a few seconds is good, even if that angle was guaranteed to show off my fat chin! For the second one I asked if it was ok if I rested my hands and chin on his shoulder (another way to potentially cover up the fat bits!) and he said yes. He stood with his arms crossed; smirking slightly from under his eyebrows and looking absolutely gorgeous whilst in fact I didn’t manage to cover my chin as his shoulder was a bit too high. I’m not really smiling in it either, though it came out pretty good in the end.
I had planned to do something else for the third shot, but when James said “And now I’ll lean on your shoulder” I was happy to go with that. Of course, as I’m shorter than him, James had to bend down to do so and ended up with his forehead against my ear and partly hidden as he turned towards the camera, chin resting on his hands. I just grinned and it wasn’t until I saw the picture later that I realised he had this cute little smile on his face so it came out really sweet!
As the shot was taken, James straightened up, gave me a lovely smile and then pulled me into a big hug. I wasn’t going to complain at that -he definitely started it! - I just hugged him back and we exchanged murmured comments about how good it was to see each other. Moving apart, James was smiling at me and kept on doing it as I turned to leave - you know how he does that as though he can’t bear to see you go - and means you end up walking into things as it’s so hard to tear your eyes away. Luckily I did make it out without mishap and then turned to see Louisa do her shots. James did the lean on her shoulder too - obviously I gave him an idea with that one - so sweet. And afterwards, when she was trying to collect up all her belongings from the floor, James bent down to help her, picking up her crutches for her. (She told me afterwards she was taking so long because she was trying to find her glasses! She thought she had just flung them on top of everything in a hurry as she went in and that they had fallen off somewhere, but in fact they turned up in one of her bags!)
We went back and rejoined the end of the line so we could do our joint picture at the end. (and this time, I made sure we left all our stuff with J&J as we went past!) We had decided to do a “jazz hands” pose with James in the middle, so I got to explain it when we went in as we needed him to do it low whilst we went either side of him. He thought it was hilarious when I explained it, and started laughing! Poor Froggy was nearly falling out of the booth, leaning right back against the curtain trying to get all 3 of us in - there was scarcely enough space. Good thing there were no big group shots!! We positioned ourselves, Louisa on James’s right, me on his left, peering out from behind and we went for it. Froggy checked the shot and said no, we had to do it again, Louisa urged him to “tell us what we are doing wrong!” and James, still laughing said we had to do “a full-on Busby Berkley!” So we went into the pose once more, Froggy nearly fell out of the booth again, the picture was taken and then James collapsed laughing, as did I. (In the first shot, James has a hilarious open-mouthed expression on his face but I was caught mid-blink. The second one is great - all three of us laughing at the camera)
We were all still laughing afterwards as we all turned towards each other and almost immediately James put his arms around me and gave me a huge, tight, full-on hug, pulling me in close against him, his head on my shoulder. I immediately returned it, grinning goofily and we stayed there hugging for a couple of seconds. Then he turned and hugged Louisa too.
Outside where we stopped to have a mutual squee, Louisa said that the hug James had just given me was a real one. He was cuddling me tight up against him, no holding back - she could see he really meant it. I protested that he had hugged her too, but she said it wasn’t the same - he hugged her shoulders and it was friendly; but with me he was different - he definitely meant it!
We lurked for a bit and saw James and Steve leave Froggy’s right by us (but looking the other way!) and then made our way downstairs as Louisa had the Stan Lee panel to go to. I was insisting that she didn’t need to line up as she had the special pass that would get her a front seat and there was no need, and another guy sitting at one of the tables there was backing me up, but every time I took my eye off her, she was going off towards the back of the very long line! So I had to grab her arm and march her to the front and ask the volunteers to let her in without queuing - and a very nice man, on seeing her crutches immediately accompanied her in. It’s always much easier to ask for something on someone else’s behalf!
I then went back upstairs to the autograph line and hung about taking a load more pictures - I love it when you can get in fairly close and are allowed to stay there! This kept me well occupied until I went back downstairs again once Stan Lee’s panel had finished as I needed to get into the room to make sure of a seat well before James was due on. (His Q and A was very late at 8.45pm) Louisa had been seated right in the front row and so had saved me one, which I gladly took over whilst she went off to do other things. It did mean I sat through a DC Comics panel which I know nothing about, but did have some amusing points when a woman who was dressed in one of the characters costumes was invited up on stage and proved to be very opinionated! After that it was the highly entertaining act Voltaire - just a guy and a guitar singing his own songs (sound familiar???) but in his own unique style (one of the songs was about a Zombie prostitute…). I’ve not seen him before but he was brilliant - very funny and clever and had everyone singing along. He had quite a big following too - lots of people were in just to see him.
The stage had a sort of sticking out catwalk bit which we were seated right in front of and Voltaire was set up there to sing. A few people were sitting on the floor taking pictures of him, and - whilst still playing the guitar - he was telling them that it was not a good angle as whatever was nearest the camera would look biggest - whilst thrusting his crotch forward…!!
And then it was James. He came up onto the stage at the back - wearing the black polo (if you’re English) or turtle (if you’re American) necked jumper (if you’re English) or sweater (if you’re American) (for the sake of brevity, in future I’ll just put a / between the choices!) and black coat, grabbed a mic from the table, and did his normal greeting of “Hello all you beautiful people!” The place was packed and so he got a rousing cheer. Then as the table was set some way back, he looked for a way round, made some comment about the “card-table” being in the way and came stalking down the catwalk bit so he was right at the front only a short distance away and I was having to look up at him. This meant I now had almost the same problem as Voltaire had been talking about when it came to photographing him…! No - it wasn’t too bad. The lighting was though - seriously crap. I had to use flash throughout. Why do they have such rubbish lighting at these things - people at the back must have been searching for him in the gloom!
It was a very lively Q and A - James was bouncing - he said he’d had a beer and was feeling good! He was very talkative and funny. The coat got discarded halfway through - just after someone had asked him to sign something for her. Being James, he did even though he wasn’t supposed to and made everyone promise that no one else would ask him to sign anything (someone tried, but he very graciously told her no, he couldn’t after just doing the one autograph)
And there were some really good questions - he talked about Three Inches, there was a couple of Harry Dresden questions (one from the guy dressed as Harry that I’d seen last year in Boston - James thought they should film it together!) Another interesting one was how did he do the voices for female characters, how did he approach it? James said it wasn’t any different to doing the male characters as they are all human - he just pitched his voice slightly higher. One girl said she loved that he was a nerd and of course that’s a compliment. James said the President is a nerd, Rachel Maddow is a nerd (he’s still got his crush) so it was a great thing to be.
Steve and the girls were sitting on the edge of the stage at the back - well, the girls were sitting - Steve was lying down! One time on his back, leaning on his elbows and then later on his front whilst he was typing on his Blackberry. Well - he’s heard it all before! I got pictures of course…!
It was supposed to be an hour and although I didn’t ever look at the time, it felt like it went on a lot longer than that. It was a really fun session - yes the usual questions came up, but there were more good ones - I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As it was fairly late now (pretty sure it was well gone 10pm) Louisa and I tried to flag down a cab along with a lot of other people - one very kindly stopped as they saw Louisa’s crutches - and we went off for dinner in another diner as I hadn’t really eaten properly all day. We had a fun time, ate lots and talked James continually. The best way to end the day!
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