My Con Report
Sep. 11th, 2006 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
botiasIn which I make James Marsters feel like Bill Clinton, and turn Jane Espenson on to the Marquis de Sade.
Friday Night
I tend to live a charmed life and Friday was no great exception. My husband dropped me off at the airport and departed with our 3 kiddos and it was like being dropped off at the ball, for this geek girl anyway. I was all gussied up, ate yummy food while reading a good book, and literally walked from one flight onto another, and right onto a shuttle heading for Long Beach. I crossed onto the Promenade Deck of the Queen Mary and who should step out of the elevator but this rather familiar looking guy wearing the remnants of a tux and carrying a guitar case. OMG is that who I think it is? It was.
'If this thing is starting like it means to go on,' I think, 'It’s going to rock beyond the telling.' And it really, really did.
Saturday
I started out by having breakfast with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
copykween, beanbeans, uisge_beatha and art_bites. I’m not sure if the con was the premium ice cream and these guys were the whipped cream and hot fudge with generous helpings of roasted almonds, or if it was the other way around, but they were sweet and wonderful and rather naughty, which fits with my analogy and absolutely friggin' hilarious which does not. After that, I watched Q&As with James, Jane Espenson, Mercedes McNab and David Fury and an episode commentary of The Harsh Light of Day with the first three folks, and got my pic taken with James, though not in that order.
James did the first run of photos in a tux and a lot of people wore formal dresses to match, but I’m a slacker as you can see. I asked him to 'wave to the folks back home' which he said made him feel like the aforementioned leader of the free world (former). He had to say it to my back though, ‘cause I ran like the dickens. I got this tactic for dealing with JM when he’s holding your hand, looking deep into your eyes, calling you sweetheart and saying how nice it is to see you again, from the lj ofbendy1 whom I got to meet. Yay! I also got to bunk with hollydb and meet eurydice72
I got to ask him my burning question re: the sexism in all the hand-wringing about women being attracted to Spike even though he’s not good relationship material, and the absence of same regarding men being attracted to Faith and other ‘bad girl’ fantasy objects. I was very nervous, and just astounded that I was standing there getting an earnest answer from Mr. Marsters about something that’s been niggling me for years. It was kind of surreal. The event seemed pretty small and intimate to me, and I kept being aware that there they were, and there I was, watching it all live, interacting. I felt very lucky.
Anyway, his reply was: “Good point.” He then went on to say (I'm paraphrasing, perhaps badly) that he did his best to make Spike sexy/sympathetic because he wanted the work, and that it wasn’t that people were attracted to a ‘bad boy’, it was that, for a while there, ME seemed to be presenting a character that was an OK person to his love interest and her family, and a mean person to everyone else, and he repeated his point about how, if a man is mean, [sooner or later] he'll be mean to you.
Sunday
I wandered around the Queen Mary before breakfast and saw Jane Espenson on the topmost deck. I waved and squeed politely at her, but didn’t stop to chat since I didn’t feel comfortable accosting her when she was ‘off duty’. Seeing her later at the con, I would have no scruples whatsoever.
I made terribly stilted conversation with JM while he autographed an item of my choice. I just can’t talk to the man, and I couldn’t run away, he had the case for my Chosen Collection boxed set. *sigh* My one regret. I really wanted to tell him how much Spike made me think, and rage, and hurt, and uh, other things too… numerous to mention here. Maybe I’ll get another opportunity someday.
I was on my way down to the main floor when I noticed Jane Espenson at the autograph tables with no one in line. I went over and told her basically what I would have liked to have told James, that I loved her work on BtVS. Talking about Spike’s journey led us to talking about the nature of evil, her pilot that she is pitching makes that a focus, and I mentioned that a lot of the same themes were addressed in the Marquis de Sade’s The Misfortunes of Virtue.
The much-talked-of sadism was actually pretty tame by today’s standards, but de Sade’s assertions that doing good against one’s own self-interest, indeed doing anything against one’s own self-interest, is just stupid, and that if one does good because it feels good, isn’t it all just self-gratification anyway; they were still provocative after all these years. She was like ‘Cool, I’m gonna order that from Amazon when I get home.’ And I was like, (!?). I mentioned that I had a copy of the book she was pimping on my Amazon wishlist and she whipped one off the pile next to her, signed it and handed it to me. She said she’d been giving them away to people who made thoughtful commentary or something like that. I was in fangirl heaven.
The con wrapped up with a hour-or-so long play in which JM and two other actors performed a cast of several. I thought it was hilarious and very well done. Aside from being really tickled that they invested so much time and work and talent, when they could have gotten away with a lot less, I’m so glad they saved it for last. I found it impossible to feel let down or sad. James makes so much of his theater background, I’d always wanted to see him in a live theater performance, and never thought I would. But there it was, and there I was. I’m a lucky dog.
That wasn’t quite the end. They presented some special prizes and said good-bye. They still had the bright lights from the play lighting up the stage and this facilitated the many spectacular photos that resulted. I'm expecting to see the icon love in the next week or so.
Friday Night
I tend to live a charmed life and Friday was no great exception. My husband dropped me off at the airport and departed with our 3 kiddos and it was like being dropped off at the ball, for this geek girl anyway. I was all gussied up, ate yummy food while reading a good book, and literally walked from one flight onto another, and right onto a shuttle heading for Long Beach. I crossed onto the Promenade Deck of the Queen Mary and who should step out of the elevator but this rather familiar looking guy wearing the remnants of a tux and carrying a guitar case. OMG is that who I think it is? It was.
'If this thing is starting like it means to go on,' I think, 'It’s going to rock beyond the telling.' And it really, really did.
Saturday
I started out by having breakfast with
copykween, beanbeans, uisge_beatha and art_bites. I’m not sure if the con was the premium ice cream and these guys were the whipped cream and hot fudge with generous helpings of roasted almonds, or if it was the other way around, but they were sweet and wonderful and rather naughty, which fits with my analogy and absolutely friggin' hilarious which does not. After that, I watched Q&As with James, Jane Espenson, Mercedes McNab and David Fury and an episode commentary of The Harsh Light of Day with the first three folks, and got my pic taken with James, though not in that order.James did the first run of photos in a tux and a lot of people wore formal dresses to match, but I’m a slacker as you can see. I asked him to 'wave to the folks back home' which he said made him feel like the aforementioned leader of the free world (former). He had to say it to my back though, ‘cause I ran like the dickens. I got this tactic for dealing with JM when he’s holding your hand, looking deep into your eyes, calling you sweetheart and saying how nice it is to see you again, from the lj of
bendy1 whom I got to meet. Yay! I also got to bunk with hollydb and meet eurydice72I got to ask him my burning question re: the sexism in all the hand-wringing about women being attracted to Spike even though he’s not good relationship material, and the absence of same regarding men being attracted to Faith and other ‘bad girl’ fantasy objects. I was very nervous, and just astounded that I was standing there getting an earnest answer from Mr. Marsters about something that’s been niggling me for years. It was kind of surreal. The event seemed pretty small and intimate to me, and I kept being aware that there they were, and there I was, watching it all live, interacting. I felt very lucky.
Anyway, his reply was: “Good point.” He then went on to say (I'm paraphrasing, perhaps badly) that he did his best to make Spike sexy/sympathetic because he wanted the work, and that it wasn’t that people were attracted to a ‘bad boy’, it was that, for a while there, ME seemed to be presenting a character that was an OK person to his love interest and her family, and a mean person to everyone else, and he repeated his point about how, if a man is mean, [sooner or later] he'll be mean to you.
Sunday
I wandered around the Queen Mary before breakfast and saw Jane Espenson on the topmost deck. I waved and squeed politely at her, but didn’t stop to chat since I didn’t feel comfortable accosting her when she was ‘off duty’. Seeing her later at the con, I would have no scruples whatsoever.
I made terribly stilted conversation with JM while he autographed an item of my choice. I just can’t talk to the man, and I couldn’t run away, he had the case for my Chosen Collection boxed set. *sigh* My one regret. I really wanted to tell him how much Spike made me think, and rage, and hurt, and uh, other things too… numerous to mention here. Maybe I’ll get another opportunity someday.
I was on my way down to the main floor when I noticed Jane Espenson at the autograph tables with no one in line. I went over and told her basically what I would have liked to have told James, that I loved her work on BtVS. Talking about Spike’s journey led us to talking about the nature of evil, her pilot that she is pitching makes that a focus, and I mentioned that a lot of the same themes were addressed in the Marquis de Sade’s The Misfortunes of Virtue.
The much-talked-of sadism was actually pretty tame by today’s standards, but de Sade’s assertions that doing good against one’s own self-interest, indeed doing anything against one’s own self-interest, is just stupid, and that if one does good because it feels good, isn’t it all just self-gratification anyway; they were still provocative after all these years. She was like ‘Cool, I’m gonna order that from Amazon when I get home.’ And I was like, (!?). I mentioned that I had a copy of the book she was pimping on my Amazon wishlist and she whipped one off the pile next to her, signed it and handed it to me. She said she’d been giving them away to people who made thoughtful commentary or something like that. I was in fangirl heaven.
The con wrapped up with a hour-or-so long play in which JM and two other actors performed a cast of several. I thought it was hilarious and very well done. Aside from being really tickled that they invested so much time and work and talent, when they could have gotten away with a lot less, I’m so glad they saved it for last. I found it impossible to feel let down or sad. James makes so much of his theater background, I’d always wanted to see him in a live theater performance, and never thought I would. But there it was, and there I was. I’m a lucky dog.
That wasn’t quite the end. They presented some special prizes and said good-bye. They still had the bright lights from the play lighting up the stage and this facilitated the many spectacular photos that resulted. I'm expecting to see the icon love in the next week or so.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-12 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 04:06 am (UTC)- Some smart women asked him about reverse sexism and why he and the writers weren't worried about promoting men falling for bad girl types like Faith and constantly fussed about Spike. James was pretty much caught out on that one, lol.
So maybe that's what I was thinking of! Either way, kudos!