Well, I'm back! There were quite a few cancellations, and Ted Raimi's was
quite last minute. :( But, Adrienne Wilkinson did make
an appearance to help take the place of those that couldn't
make it! Unfortunately the lighting was pretty crap
during the weekend in the main auditorium, and so most
of my pictures did not turn out well. *cries* But, I'll
put the ones up here that are at least recognizeable
as people, and perhaps even the people they're supposed
to be!
Everyone does know that Lucy herself showed up in a
disguise to the con, right? She sat in the audience
for an hour and a half during Renee's one woman play,
and then at the end during Q & A she revealed herself.
It was wild!!!!!!! Everyone went crazy, including Renee
who had NO idea Lucy was coming. And I talked to Steven
Sears about it that night, so I know Renee didn't know.
Everyone thought she knew, but no one actually told
her. So, Lucy surprised us all. ^_^
Friday, January 30 2004 aka Day 1
Everything kicked off at 1pm,
but far before then I was browsing the merchant's tables. Oh, the free
stuff! lol Gold pass members recieved three free (and very groovy) posters,
one of which was handed out by Jamester himself!
Here are some opening pictures of the con while everyone was waiting (oh
so patienly) for events to start.
1:10p Callisto Music Video
Salute and Hudson Leick!
lol Well, there were some technical
difficulties, and the show finally did go on, but we were already running
late. You see, Hudson was stuck somewhere in LA traffic. The Hudson didn't
even arrive until 1:30p, poor girl. She claims she wore her sparkly outfit
in traffic ,and now we all know why there was a traffic jam. ;) Check
out those sequins! Hudson talked about lots of things, but mainly her
boobs and Yoga. lol What a hoot! She certianly does know how to ham it
up on stage. Plus, she auctioned off her gown at the end of her performance
to benefit the James Ellis Foundation. It went for a whopping $1000!
And, before she left Hudson graced us with her impersonation of the entire
Zodiac. I wasn't quick enough to catch the first couple (I was so awed
by the fact that Hudson was strutting right in front of me), but I did
get most of it. Sometimes her booming voice throws my camera's mike
out of whack, but you can make out what she says pretty well. (VIDEO
OFFLINE)
And here's the autograph I grabbed with Hudson! She is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S
up close and personal, and so friendly!
I pretty much missed the 2:10p Fan Discussion over who was the real hero
(Xena or Gabby) b/c I was in line waiting for my autograph. ^_^
This was Alison's first time
at a convention, and she just owned the stage. It's obvious she's a natural
when it comes to being in the spotlight. She even sang us a funeral song
that must have stopped the breath in my throat. I don't know if it was
from a particular episode or not, but it sounded like the funeral song
Xena normally sings.
I snapped so few pictures of Alison b/c by this point I was just getting
fed UP with my stupid camera. Of course, later I found out it wasn't my
camera's incapabilities, but the horrid lighting that made all of my pictures
come out dark. I overexposed the film in order to get anything resembling
a decent shot, but if anyone moved the entire photo would blur beyond
recognition! Blah! So, here are the only 2 somewhat discernable shots
I grabbed of her.
Okay, now this was one helluva
highlight for me. lol I really only went in to see what they were selling
and goad on some friends of mine into buying things they couldn't afford.
*sheepish grin* Well, I ended up winning TWO autographed plaques! One
by Lucy and one by Renee (Renee's is only #2 of 10 ever made!) Well, I'll
let them speak for themselves...
I spent so much time in the
auction that I missed most of Missy's speech. :( What I did catch of it
was fun and lively, and it really gave me a sense of what a wonderful
woman Missy is. Oh, and she claims that she is not a magician, and does
not have an evil twin. The way she's able to get so much writing done
is that she plain and simply types fast. :)
4:30p Video Salute to Ephiny
and Danielle Cormack!
This was one kick ass music
video. Props to whoever put it together!
Danielle came out in a rather conservative blue dress with mostly straight,
long, dark brunette hair! lol She claimed that she was tired of being
recognized whenever she pulled silly stunts or crashed parties. (Who was
that loud, obnoxious, curly blonde at last night's party? Oh, that must
have been Danielle!) So she went with a new look to confuse people. (Who
was that loud, obnoxious, straight dark haired girl at last night's party?
Oh, that must have been Lucy Lawless!) Danielle was my favorite performer
of the day. She was so loose and laid back...and who woulda guessed but
she's a Fry's Electronic Store freak. And, there just so happens to be
a Frys right across the street from this hotel! She said she spent most
of her day there hopped up on caffeine peppermints buying electronics
and DVDs she can't buy in her country.
She also shared an absolutely horrendous story about her trip up here.
Her flight got bumped, and so she agreed to take a later flight out and
be upgraded to business class. Seems like a great idea to her, and she
even gets entrance to the "business class only" bar at the airport.
So, she's in there having a drink and some food when she spills her entire
glass of wine directly on her crotch!!! Well, her plane isn't scheduled
to take off for another 3 hours due to the delay so she walks quickly
to the bathroom to wash the stain out. Well, she only succeeds in soaking
her pants (which she's taken off and put in the sink at this point) from
waist band to knees. So! Not freaking out yet she decides to just dry
them under the hand drier. This is going slowly, but well when she hears
the imminent departure of her flight announced! Starting to freak out
a bit by now she carefully wraps her jacket around her waist and skulks
onto the plane and into her seat. Luckily her pants dry quickly since
they had been speeded on their way by the bathroom hand drier.
But, that couldn't be the end of the tale now could it? Nope, it turns
out the crabby woman sitting next to her on the plane gets so upset at
something that she's gesturing wildly and knocks the bottled water that
Danielle had next to her seat, you guessed it, all over her crotch! So,
Danielle had the pleasure of sitting through the rest of her long flight
in wet pants once more.
And get this, Danielle actually talked to me. Well...kinda. She was talking
about her trip to Frys, and someone asked her what she bought. She mentioned
wanting
to buy a Powerbook G4, and I jumped up and starting screaming like the
Macintosh dork I am. (Luckily I wasn't the only one in the audience, there
were other happy Mac dorks out there too. lol) But, I evidentallly was
the loudest one and she looked DIRECTLY AT ME and asked if I had one.
Well, my common sense being completely over-run at this point I yelled
back that she could come up to my hotel room and see it if she wanted!
*blush* I don't know WHAT got into me! Well, she gave a good grin and
asked if it really was just my Powerbook I wanted to invite her up to
the hotel room to see. *blush again*
5:05p Music Video Salute to
Eve/Livia and Adrienne Wilkinson!
Since I never really like the
character Eve (loved Livia though) I didn't really expect to much enjoy
Adrienne, but happily I was proven wrong! She has a wonderful stage presence,
and she was so laid back. She even asked the audience to help her think
of things to talk about on the upcoming Season 5 and 6 commentaries she'll
be doing. Did you know that she had never heard of Xena when she auditioned
for the role of Livia? And that she was only told that her character would
be the Empress of Rome, and nothing about it being Xena's daughter. Plus,
once she did find out about that little plot twist all she was given to
try and study up on her "parents" (namely Callisto) was a single
episode. Luckily, she says, her and Hudson share alot of their mannerisms,
and so she was able to adapt quickly. Crazy, huh?
After that everyone got to
line up once more for autographs. All three women were interactive and
talkative, which made the process quite fun! Danielle and I had a short
conversation about how to upgrade memory in a Powerbook (my heart was
afluttter!) before I was ushered quickly out of the way so as not to hold
up the line.
In between functions I caught
up with Steven Sears himself! What a generous and kind man, even with
all of his female fans flocking to him. lol He graciously accepted a CD
I gave him from my friend Kenni, and then signed my program! And, to top
it all off he agreed to be in a photo with me. Now, I planned to just
stand beside him (I didn't want to be some creepy fan-girl who grabs a
hug when he's not expecting it), but he hugged me! lol Rock on Steve!
Plus I took the chance to catch a pic with my two best webmastering buds,
Skip (www)
and Jane (www)!
I also caught up with a very talented young woman named, Jillayne Xena
Marie. (Xena's not her nickname, it's really her middle name!) She made
her entire Livia costume all by herself, and wasn't afraid to show it
off. Check out the Downloads section
for the pattern she wrote up exclusively for The Hut. ^_^
9:00p Merry Muses of Melodia
(hosted by Hudson and starring Adrienne, Danielle, and Tim Omundson!)
Once again, Danielle stole
the cake for me. She was so energetic, and the songs she did I already
knew by heart. Adrienne has a great singing voice, and Tim was such
a character (smoking his cigarette and drinking his cocktail as he
sang.) I couldn't get many good pictures, but *evil grin* I did get
some great video clips!!! (VIDEOS OFFLINE)
