Gathering V - Con Report

This was a pretty laid-back con. Wendy registered Joanne on Thursday night, and she was number 755 or so--not a huge attendance. When we got in Friday, I wandered right up to the registration desk and Morgan handed me my reg packet. No muss, no fuss, no lines.

There were lots of lines for autographs despite the cons "no autograph" policy, but I only stayed in one. At Chronicles, I got a photo of Peter holding a sword at Stan's neck (with Stan kneeling in front of him, no less). Peter signed it on the Cruise, and now I've got Stan's sig on it too. It's the only reason I bothered with the line, and it only took an hour and a half. I did talk to someone who'd stood line for 4 hours waiting for Adrian--I'm glad I'm not that obsessed.

Here are some highlights:

Friday night, Wendy had a headache so she went up to the room alone. She was standing near the elevator when she saw a herd of Clan Denial folks. She ignored them, but couldn't help them look at her button (#mean-spirited), her stuffed ferret hand puppet, and her con badge ("Madame Weezul"). They whispered among themselves, then slowly shuffled enmass away from her. They even waited for a different elevator and let her go up in her very own.

Saturday morning knife fighting class taught by F. Braun McAsh. Attendees: me, Joanne, Glo., Wendy, Lisa Kadlec, and even Bob Chapin. We learned lots of neat moves and found out that Joanne has a serious killer instinct while Wendy, oddly enough, refuses to just stand back and have her arm broken and her neck sliced opened--she fights back. :-)

F.'s a good teacher, and now I'm even more sure I don't want to tangle with him in a fight.

He showed us a couple of different moves; some based on real fighting techniques, and some that were more theatrical and flashy. He assured us they'd get you dead in a real fight...

Liz Gracen's Q&A was hopeless until Wendy and I started devising better questions: "Is it true you took Stan's virginity?" "How *was* Bill Clinton and did you keep the dress?" Good stuff like that. We tried to get ZK to ask them, as she's the most innocent-looking of the bunch, but she declined. Oh, well.

ZK, Glo., and I went to a reading from Gillian's new anthology, _An Evening at Joe's_. Braun read the first chapter of his story--it's full of wonderful details that scream "I know my stuff". The details don't get in the way though--they're not overwhelming. His story is about Hans Kirschner (sp?)--the character Braun plays (and Byron kills) in Modern Pro. Hans is working with Dracula, as his body guard and taste tester. Apparently Dracula is an immortal too.

Gillian read from her story (written with Donna) called "Postcards from Alexa." It's done as alternating chapters, with Gillian writing the scene from Methos' perspective and Donna writing it from Alexa's. The first chapter is very sweet and a little saccharine even for me. This is clearly not Bronze Age Methos...

Then a group of us escaped the horrible restaurant in the hotel and went to the Mexican joint in the Ramada. 3 pitchers of margarita's later, I was signing up to work as support crew for DragonWendy as she competes in an endurance race following the course of the Pony Express ride in 2001. One week getting up at 4 am and trundling along behind her with a truck, horse trailer, and her two spare horses. I gotta be nuts, but even sober it sounds like fun. Not the 4 am part, but the taking care of the horses part, anyway...

Then it was back to the con to watch F. Braun and Bob choreograph a fight based on direction from two audience members. I always love this routine, no matter how many times I see it. Braun and Bob worked well together too--even though this was the very first time they'd done so. Bob was never on HL, so he and Braun haven't run into each other before...

After that, Wendy, Glo., Joanne, ZK, and I hit the bar. Wendy and I were happy gazing upon the Bob--he looked quite handsome in his black leather trench coat and black jeans. {{drool}}

Sunday was a pretty mellow con day for me. I got Stan to sign my picture, then drifted into Adrian's Q&A. Wendy and I watched that, then snarked our way through Stan's. The most amusing moment in Stan's (besides the ones Wendy and I made ourselves <g>) was when Liz cut into the Q&A line. She talked in a bouncy, breathy, drooling-fan-girl voice, and the dialog went something like this:

It was cute. :)

After that, we went upstairs to join Glo., Joanne, and ZK. Wendy regaled us all with tales of the movie trailer--she was the only one who saw it. Apparently it does follow that script that was posted on the web a little closer than one might like...

Then we went to see the outtakes Gillian's collected. Some of them were scenes cut from various things, some dailies (like the 20 minutes of takes of the Jimmy scene in Horseman), some were the episodes translated into French and German. It's amazing how much gets lost when you don't have Peter & Adrian's voice saying the lines. (But the "Ya, oh, ya!" was kind of funny. <g>)

Then we went to dinner, figuring the 3.5 hours Joanne & I had before our plane was plenty of time. It should have been, but the service was so bad (in a mostly empty restaurant, no less), that we had to demand the check or miss our shuttle. Unreal. Annoying. And not a good thing to do to a bunch o' hungry, tired, sleepless con attendees. Grrrrrr.

But we eventually escaped, and Joanne and I flew back both on time and relatively comfortably. We upgraded to United's Economy Plus--5" more leg room. It made a big difference, even if we couldn't sit together. Luckily for me, I ended up behind her so she couldn't pester me too much...

And that's about it. Well, until the quote lists surface, anyway. And then I deny everything...

Jen (Joanne and I did yell down to Morgan from the 4th floor as she and Bob were walking through the lobby)(he looked up a bit confused we weren't saying hello to him, but he waved anyway)(even from above, it's a nice view...)