Rosie Goes to See James at the Welcome to Sunnydale Convention in Paris - Part Deux
I've got some more written - its a miracle! So - here's Part Deux (See? - it's French cos we are in France! J'est practically bilingual!! )
SATURDAY
After a sampling the local cuisine for breakfast - a yummy pain au chocolat from the local bolangerie - I was off down to the con before 8.30am, hoping to secure a good seat. But it turned out that the seats were allocated by pass number with the lower numbers nearer the front. I was 100, so ended up in the third row to the right of the stage - but it wasn’t too bad a view and since the lighting was good, fine for photos. So I just waited and gradually the place filled up and an excited buzz filled the air. It got to 9am with nothing happening and then a bit longer, and then at 9.10 with very little preamble, they played a Buffy title sequence on the big screens with extra pictures of the guests inserted, and then there the three of them were coming down the steps behind the stage, led by James who got to a microphone first and got to call “Good morning all you beautiful people” amid all the cheering. He was wearing a black t shirt (of course!) and the tight, slightly shiny black jeans with his hair gelled back - no sign of any curls. He said he was delighted to be there and he was feeling great as he had had good sleep which was unusual for him! Buffy was one of the high points of his career and it was a great show and he looked forward to meeting everybody. Nick and Clare also spoke briefly and then, as they joked, they just had to leave again! It was straight on with the con - James was doing photos first whilst Nick and Clare were doing autographs so we all filed out to the other room, where both were taking place. The line for James was long and slow moving as there was no rushing the pictures and the attendees weren’t chivvied along at all. One of the organisers told me later that all the events team are fans themselves and they wanted it to be great and ran it how they as fans would like it to be. Oceann was with me and she was getting all nervous as we got closer and were able to watch the photos being taken. But I was happy because it was quickly obvious that James was feeling good, he was chatting away with everyone, doing bite poses and the like and being quite cuddly. I saw him do several quite huggy pictures with people so knew it was going to be OK!
As I stepped forward for my turn I was greeted with a big smile “Hey Rosie!” and a high five which was lovely. I asked could we hug for the first photo, was he up for it? He replied “Sure, I’m feeling good!” So both his arms went round me, I put my arms round his waist, feeling his warmth through the t shirt and James pulled me in close so our heads were touching in the middle. I was grinning hugely because it was so lovely to be hugging James again! I really have missed it.
For my second picture I asked if I could go behind so I could hide my fat chin - James said sure and stood with his legs spread to make his shoulders lower (almost too low as I had to crouch a bit!) so I could tuck in behind him. As James was straightening up after, he said in a mocking tone with a big smile “And you do not have a fat chin! You look wonderful!” which was very sweet of him, the flatterer! I was laughing and protesting that I did, since the evidence was right there. Then the photographer said we had to do it again for some reason, so we got back in place again and retook it. Rather than a handshake, since he was feeling good, I asked if I could have a hug, to which James immediately replied yes, and gathered me in for a proper face-to-face hug and squeezed me tight. It was lovely - James hugs are the best. He is so fabulously lean and yet so firm and solid! Then as I was moving away, we were exchanging small talk pleasantries and we kind of briefly caught hands again and I got a quick squeeze, so that meant I was off grinning like a complete idiot. That man always has that effect on me! (Managed to say Hi to Lisa afterwards and got a kiss from Steve - I did offer to kiss Helen as well, but she declined...!)
Then it was various autographs, depending on how you had been allocated. I got one with James included in my pass, but I shelled out for another one just so I could go both days. But first I did Clare who recognised me and said “Hey, you’re in the wrong country!” to which I replied “So are you!” We talked about Paris and I told her about the water lilies and she wished she was there for longer to be able to go and see things. Then I went and joined James’s line. I was hoping to try and sneak a video in with my camera round my neck, but the security guard standing there was very strict - no photos or anything That was definitely a con thing as the person in front of me asked to take a picture of James and he said was fine with it - “yeah, sure” but the security guard stepped in and said no, no pictures; making James apologise to her “Apparently, I’m not allowed to!” and do some hilarious Gallic shrugging!
And then it was my turn. I was greeted with the usual “Hey Rosie! How are you love?” and a high five that segued into a hand shake with the extra squeezes. Then he took one look at the photo I had for him to sign ( the one of him with his tongue out) burst out laughing and asked incredulously “What the fuck???” so I told him it was taken at the Calgary concert when he was all curly - so he wrote “WTF...?” on it which made me laugh.
I then asked him what he could tell me about warehouse 13 and he said he could tell me quite a lot. His character is an immortal conman, a high class Brit but who pretends to be other people all the time so he got to show off another accent - doing Russian. And the character is very debonair, wears a tux and has a moustache so it was great for him. And Tony Head is playing his brother, and he’s a real bad ass. Said he was flying back to Toronto on Monday to film more. I asked “So you don’t die then?” and he replied “He can’t die - he’s immortal. Gets shot but it doesn’t harm him” for which I cheered. James said he wished he could show me a photograph as he thinks he looks great in it and he is in a lot of scenes.
I remember him doing some very bad-on-purpose being French and doing more hilarious shrugging but I can’t remember why (curse that security guard!) our usual handshake as I left and I got one of those devastating smiles too, which was bliss!
I went to collect my photo ops from the back of the Q and A room and stopped to talk to Steve and Lisa were both there, and then got my prints which they were a bit of a disappointment. James looked great of course and I looked OK too, but the quality not very good, only a 7x5 print for the price and the framing and lighting were... interesting, as I said to Steve. “Crap, you mean” he corrected me! The helpers said that if there were any problems with any pictures they could be redone the next day, so I thought I would get the first one redone as they had chopped the top of James’s head off. I said that to Steve and he looked slightly wistful and pondered “I quite often want to chop his head off...!!” ROFL!
Being France, everything stopped for lunch between 12 and 2 (very civilised!) and we didn’t need to be around until the group photo that was included in our pass. So DeeDee, Sheila and I went back to the hotel and I had a nice leisurely lunch from the goodies I had bought and posted the Warehouse 13 news to all the boards and Facebook. Back up the road again and straight in to join the line for the group photos. They were late starting because the guests had been taken out to lunch and it being a Saturday, no one was in any hurry - I think they got there at about 2.20 in the end. It was apparent again that the photos weren’t at all hurried and a lot of the French fans were greeting all 3 guests in the normal French manner with two kisses and everyone seemed fine with it ( When in Paris, do as the Parisians do!) and some were hugging too. Most people were standing between James and Clare, with Nick on the other side of Clare and just having an ‘arms round’ photo. Of course, me being me decided to do something a bit different!
So when it was my turn, I started towards James who said “Rosie!” and stuck out his hand for me to shake and then with the other hand hauled me in for a lovely big squishy hug, which felt so good! I hugged Clare and Nick too and then said rather than doing the arms round pose, could we do jazz hands to be different?! Certainly could - I went slightly in front with my hands out to the side so I couldn’t see what the others were doing - but we had to take it again anyway as the photographer said Clare had her eyes shut (not me!) So we did it again, and the line laughed so again I had no idea what was going on (but in the final picture James was really getting into it) I didn’t hug them all again on leaving but James did catch my hand and gave it a quick squeeze.
They were doing Buffy karaoke in the main hall, so we just lurked about waiting for the photos to finish and to be called for the meet and greet with James which was going on at the same time as Clare was doing her first Q and A. Everything was running late by now of course, but it didn’t matter - con time! Turned out the room they were going to use for the meet and greet was up the stairs at the back, which was awkward for DeeDee as they hadn’t thought of that - but she did manage to stairs. By then, the other 7 people were in the room, so we squeezed in as it was a very small room with tables making a square. I ended up 2 down from where James would be which was fine if we were allowed to take photos. They were filming a lot of the con - I assume for a DVD that will come out later - and so we had a girl with the camera in with us - she was going round asking us about James and our thoughts. Then, apart from a translator (who never got to say a word!) and the camera girl it was just us 10 and James, which was really nice.
(detailed meet & greet report coming in a bit!)
We went back down to the main hall again as James was up next for his Q and A. My seat was pretty good for photos, no one was in my sight line and James sat on the further side and so spent a lot of time looking at the interpreter and therefore facing me. To begin with it was typical long detailed James answers and then he realised he would have to break it down a bit for the interpreter, which kind of interrupted his flow a bit and made it long winded, but it was OK (except that when the question was asked in French, she would translate it for James without using the microphone, so we couldn’t hear what it was until he answered it!) One of the first questions was asking him to sing and he couldn’t think of anything until several of us shouted out “Cowboy song” which is the obvious choice for unaccompanied, so he sang most of that. Nothing new to report - he talked more about Warehouse 13, and there was some Dresden too, but it was of course mostly Buffy - though, the JB question did come up and it was asked by a guy. The best bit was probably Grae (who’s English) asking one question and then asking “What are you doing here? Five words or less...” James caught on straight away and answered, with the hand actions “Out. For. A. Walk....Bitch!” which got the biggest round of applause of the weekend! I just enjoyed watching him and taking photos - it was a good hour.
I stayed on for Nick’s Q and A and the best bit from that was a question from Grae again - asking Nick what he was geeky about as a teenager. “Baseball and masturbation!” was the immediate reply (“but not at the same time” added Grae, which had those of us who heard him and understood laughing our heads off!) then, when the interpreter was translating, Nick asked her “How do you say masturbation in French?” - she murmured the answer to him and he said “oh - it’s just ‘masturbation’ then” but said in a very strong French accent so it comes out like ‘mastabassion.’ Nick decided it sounded much better like that!
That was it for the day, though I did go back later for the party, which was quite fun. No guests showed as I expected and as it was just in the back bit of the main hall, it wasn’t the greatest party ever, but a lot of people had made a real effort with costumes. I had fun taking pictures of them and having pictures with all the new people I had met. (They were all so much younger than me, though I didn’t really notice until Lena asked me how old I was and when I told her, she said I was older than her mother! But also, I was so different to her, everything about me, she would never have thought i was that old. Yay me for being an overgrown teenager!) I did a bit of dancing a too and at one point I was miming singing along to Thriller with Dahbia, using plastic rats as microphones. Like you do...!
(I have to say, Dahbia is one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen - she actually looks very like Patricia, especially her eyes. I wanted to take loads of photos of her anyway because she is so beautiful. I managed a few the next day outside, but she was very self conscious so I didn’t push it)
I went back to the hotel at about 10 and tried to upload some photos (only managed 6 as the connection was really slow!) and got ready for the morning because again it was photos with James at 9am - could he make it on time for the second day running???