FanExpo - Sat. Aug 23
Aug. 23rd, 2008 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skinscriptAfter the EPIC FAIL that was yesterday, the trip into Toronto today went quite smoothly. I accidentally turned onto the wrong street (that will be the right street tomorrow) but turned around and even found parking without a big deal. One small asthma attack (damned steps) later, I was heading in to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
FanExpo is a huge event, and there were thousands of people there today. A very good proportion were in costume, and not just the usual costumes either. Since FanExpo includes the AnimeCon, there were a *lot* of fascinating interpretations of manga; the HorrorCon brought out some really incredible bloodworks, SciFi of course contributed BSG, Stargate, Star Wars, and the occasional Star Trek. There was a 7 foot Chewbacca, and some of the most creative costumes I've seen, ever.
No lineup for me for registration, AND I still got my swag bag! Awesome! We headed in to the dealer floor first.
The place was *packed*. MTCC has a large, large dealer floor, and it was wall to wall people. Insane. The first event that we really wanted to see was the talk with Dr. Buzz Aldrin, and we got there late enough that there wasn't a lot of time before his talk. So, we did a quick wander around, enough to see some absolutely incredible leatherwork, before we headed out. On the way out the door, I almost ran over a blonde lady in a pretty green dress, sidestep ok, took another two steps and realised - holy shit! That's Kate Hewlett! And she looks awesome, by the way. A little tired around the eyes, but gorgeous. But .. but... Buzz ALDRIN! So, I decided to keep my eyes open later and headed for the Q&A.
I have to say, the organization of almost everything was great, *except starting the events on time*. O.M.G. The usual start was fifteen to twenty minutes late, and they cut the stars off with about ten minutes left, every single time. SO annoying. But! The stars themselves were fantastic.
SO! Dr. Aldrin. It was amazing, seeing in person a man who has walked on the moon; amazing enough that everyone seemed to be struck a bit dumb. He filled in the blanks by telling about how he got into the space program and his background, and then he discussed his feelings on the importance of space exploration, and where he thinks that the folks in charge are going right and going wrong. He's very passionate about the topic, and I wish he could have spoken longer. Unfortuately they set up the autograph sessions immediately after the talks (though better than right before as happened last year).
Then we went to get Peter David's autograph. As we headed in the quieter door, we stopped at the TCON booth, and found Kate Hewlett signing photographs, and Aaron Douglas! How awesome is that!! Aaron was signing autographs and soliciting donations (for photographs with him) for charity. His hair is growing back and he looks awesome. Some friends of Kate's had just come by so Ash and I got our pictures with Aaron and headed down to Peter David's signings.
Now - neither of us had anything for him to sign, so I waited in line while Ash went on a comic hunt. A half hour or more later, I shrug and go up and asked him to sign my programme. We talked a little about how hard his book series are to get in stores up here, and how it's so much easier to be an author at one of these events than to be an artist, cause the fans make the artists draw the whole time.
I liked him. :)
Then, back to Kate. She was very friendly and talkative; I picked the same picture as goblie had signed at Meet the Hewletts. I told her how unhappy I am at SGA's cancellation, and she agreed. Apparently not many fans know, and she'd been breaking the news to them all day. :( We kind of exchanged grouches about how it had seemed so certain for season 6, especially after the comments at ComicCon. We shook hands and it was on to Michael Rosenbaum! At which point I realised no picture of Kate - I'll keep my eyes open tomorrow too.
Michael R and Laura V did a joint Q&A, and they plainly really enjoy each other's company. Michael has hair, and it looks great on him, and Laura looked beautiful. More importantly, they were both in great spirits and a little giddy, and were hilarious.
For someone who I am so uninterested in his character, I have to say Michael is an incredible Q&A guest. He has *such* a great time with it and has so much energy that it just picks up the whole room. I unfortunately forgot my pen & paper so I don't remember the questions beyond whether the inflatable sheep exploded, but it was a lot of fun. The Q&A started twenty minutes late and was stopped with 15 minutes left to go, but at least this time it was for a good cause - Laura sponsored a small charity auction for North York General's NICU. We left just as a fellow dressed as Hermes (winged boots, pointed ears, and a speedo) paid 2 thousand for Tom Welling's red Clark Kent jacket. Fun!
We headed upstairs to Henry Winkler's Q&A, and he was an absolute hoot as well. He started off discussing his qualifications and what he's done. It was very motivationally flavoured, but he relaxed and started joking with the audience pretty easily. His was probably the Q&A with the most questions, ranging all across his career from Happy Days (Jokes on set, how did Fonz get his ehhhhhh, Ron Howard, Robin Williams) to Arrested Development (how did that happen), next plans (heading to england), and his children's books. He's a really good speaker, knowing how to keep the room going, and he used his time really well.
The day ended with a sketch-off, and it was another fantastic experience for us. Everyone involved was a little punchy, so it became a set of five minute sketch challenges, while answering questions from the crowd and telling anecdotes. This session was the most like just hanging out, with the crowd talking to each other, a great moderator, and lots of bantering with the artists as well as with the crowd and each other. Such fun! And the stories about Stan Lee, Peter David, and other folks as well as the bitchtalking were just hilarious.
Then dinner, then home.
Tomorrow - Brent Spiner, Edward James Olmos, and a four way sketch off! Looking forward to it.
FanExpo is a huge event, and there were thousands of people there today. A very good proportion were in costume, and not just the usual costumes either. Since FanExpo includes the AnimeCon, there were a *lot* of fascinating interpretations of manga; the HorrorCon brought out some really incredible bloodworks, SciFi of course contributed BSG, Stargate, Star Wars, and the occasional Star Trek. There was a 7 foot Chewbacca, and some of the most creative costumes I've seen, ever.
No lineup for me for registration, AND I still got my swag bag! Awesome! We headed in to the dealer floor first.
The place was *packed*. MTCC has a large, large dealer floor, and it was wall to wall people. Insane. The first event that we really wanted to see was the talk with Dr. Buzz Aldrin, and we got there late enough that there wasn't a lot of time before his talk. So, we did a quick wander around, enough to see some absolutely incredible leatherwork, before we headed out. On the way out the door, I almost ran over a blonde lady in a pretty green dress, sidestep ok, took another two steps and realised - holy shit! That's Kate Hewlett! And she looks awesome, by the way. A little tired around the eyes, but gorgeous. But .. but... Buzz ALDRIN! So, I decided to keep my eyes open later and headed for the Q&A.
I have to say, the organization of almost everything was great, *except starting the events on time*. O.M.G. The usual start was fifteen to twenty minutes late, and they cut the stars off with about ten minutes left, every single time. SO annoying. But! The stars themselves were fantastic.
SO! Dr. Aldrin. It was amazing, seeing in person a man who has walked on the moon; amazing enough that everyone seemed to be struck a bit dumb. He filled in the blanks by telling about how he got into the space program and his background, and then he discussed his feelings on the importance of space exploration, and where he thinks that the folks in charge are going right and going wrong. He's very passionate about the topic, and I wish he could have spoken longer. Unfortuately they set up the autograph sessions immediately after the talks (though better than right before as happened last year).
Then we went to get Peter David's autograph. As we headed in the quieter door, we stopped at the TCON booth, and found Kate Hewlett signing photographs, and Aaron Douglas! How awesome is that!! Aaron was signing autographs and soliciting donations (for photographs with him) for charity. His hair is growing back and he looks awesome. Some friends of Kate's had just come by so Ash and I got our pictures with Aaron and headed down to Peter David's signings.
Now - neither of us had anything for him to sign, so I waited in line while Ash went on a comic hunt. A half hour or more later, I shrug and go up and asked him to sign my programme. We talked a little about how hard his book series are to get in stores up here, and how it's so much easier to be an author at one of these events than to be an artist, cause the fans make the artists draw the whole time.
I liked him. :)
Then, back to Kate. She was very friendly and talkative; I picked the same picture as goblie had signed at Meet the Hewletts. I told her how unhappy I am at SGA's cancellation, and she agreed. Apparently not many fans know, and she'd been breaking the news to them all day. :( We kind of exchanged grouches about how it had seemed so certain for season 6, especially after the comments at ComicCon. We shook hands and it was on to Michael Rosenbaum! At which point I realised no picture of Kate - I'll keep my eyes open tomorrow too.
Michael R and Laura V did a joint Q&A, and they plainly really enjoy each other's company. Michael has hair, and it looks great on him, and Laura looked beautiful. More importantly, they were both in great spirits and a little giddy, and were hilarious.
For someone who I am so uninterested in his character, I have to say Michael is an incredible Q&A guest. He has *such* a great time with it and has so much energy that it just picks up the whole room. I unfortunately forgot my pen & paper so I don't remember the questions beyond whether the inflatable sheep exploded, but it was a lot of fun. The Q&A started twenty minutes late and was stopped with 15 minutes left to go, but at least this time it was for a good cause - Laura sponsored a small charity auction for North York General's NICU. We left just as a fellow dressed as Hermes (winged boots, pointed ears, and a speedo) paid 2 thousand for Tom Welling's red Clark Kent jacket. Fun!
We headed upstairs to Henry Winkler's Q&A, and he was an absolute hoot as well. He started off discussing his qualifications and what he's done. It was very motivationally flavoured, but he relaxed and started joking with the audience pretty easily. His was probably the Q&A with the most questions, ranging all across his career from Happy Days (Jokes on set, how did Fonz get his ehhhhhh, Ron Howard, Robin Williams) to Arrested Development (how did that happen), next plans (heading to england), and his children's books. He's a really good speaker, knowing how to keep the room going, and he used his time really well.
The day ended with a sketch-off, and it was another fantastic experience for us. Everyone involved was a little punchy, so it became a set of five minute sketch challenges, while answering questions from the crowd and telling anecdotes. This session was the most like just hanging out, with the crowd talking to each other, a great moderator, and lots of bantering with the artists as well as with the crowd and each other. Such fun! And the stories about Stan Lee, Peter David, and other folks as well as the bitchtalking were just hilarious.
Then dinner, then home.
Tomorrow - Brent Spiner, Edward James Olmos, and a four way sketch off! Looking forward to it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-24 03:24 am (UTC)I totally adore that Hermes is now in the possession of a red Clark Kent jacket. That tickles me. Heeeee!
And just the whole idea of the sketch off sounds brilliant!
Glad you're enjoying it - looking forward to reading about tomorrow. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-26 03:25 am (UTC)Hermes was called "Naked Vulcan Guy" by Michael Rosenbaum. No, I'm not kidding. That's what he called him. Multiple times. :)
Actually, I think the guy was dressed as Prince Namor, the Submariner.
*sound of crickets*
OK... Think "Aquaman" -- no, not Michael Phelps -- but from the Marvel Universe.
*tumble-weeds roll by*
OK...
There are two large comic book companies that deal with superheroes, each with their own univ--
Y'know...
Nevermind.
It was "Naked Vulcan Guy". Watch for him in the next Trek film, next summer.
Ash.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-26 09:34 pm (UTC)(Also, "Aquaman" as a nickname for Michael Phelps I actually find kinda creepy. For some reason)
I kinda love "Naked Vulcan Guy" though, that's hilarious.
Whoever he was supposed to be, kudos to the guy! Must take a lot of guts to walk around somewhere like that, mostly naked.