{"@attributes":{"version":"2.0"},"channel":{"title":"My so called life","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/","description":"My so called life - LiveJournal.com","lastBuildDate":"Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:09:58 GMT","generator":"LiveJournal \/ LiveJournal.com","copyright":"NOINDEX","image":{"url":"https:\/\/l-userpic.livejournal.com\/86224958\/2894899","title":"My so called life","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/","width":"100","height":"100"},"item":[{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/553538.html","pubDate":"Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:09:58 GMT","title":"The QAF convention in Toronto next June","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/553538.html","description":"Look at me, posting two days in a row. :)

Some of you might have already heard about this since I've talked about it on FB and a bit also on Twitter but here's more room to expand so will put it here as well.

Around the end of June, I bought a ticket for the Toronto convention on the website. Around 15 minutes later, I got an email saying that the organizer was denying my ticket \"because past has shown we see things differently when it comes to fandom and conventions\" and on the basis of the T&G which says that the organizer reserves the right to deny access to the event. Was very surprised by this and didn't know what to think. Sent an email back saying that I was sorry she felt so but also requested a bit closer explanation about it all. A few weeks passed and I got my reply. It pretty much stated that \"based on my behavior in previous conventions, for the benefit of other attendees, a ticket could not be extended to me\".

Now I've come to accept that I've been banned and truth be told, I'm not that willing to go somewhere, where I'm obviously not wanted. But to me the grounds of me being banned sound a bit flimsy. I would understand it if I had been threatening towards the organizer, guests or other attendees. But as far as I can see, all I've done is ask too many questions and bantered with the guests. Maybe that's wrong too. To my defense, the main reason I have asked so many questions, has been, that there hasn't really been anyone else asking questions. For example, several times in Bilbao, I waited for someone else to go there and pretty much only went up there after being prompted by Randy when no-one else was saying anything. I kept encouraging other people to go and ask questions but not with much result. I don't blame anyone since I know from experience that it can be nerve-wrecking to get up there in front of everyone.

However, it has also entered my mind, that is possible that some people were annoyed by me in Bilbao and have complained and that has lead to me being banned from Toronto. If that is the case, I want to apologize. My intention definitely was never to annoy anyone.

However, long story short, I won't be attending Toronto. However, will be looking forward to reading reports from there from people who do go.","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/553538.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","qaf us"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551915.html","pubDate":"Sun, 06 Apr 2014 20:47:51 GMT","title":"QUEENS OF THE ROAD - part 3","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551915.html","description":"And here's the final part of my report. It's again quite long so stocking up on food and drinks is recommended *g*

Also lots of pictures once more. Still asking you not to take any parts of the report or the photos but rather linking back to my journal. Thank you!

Previous part<\/a>



The morning really wasn\u2019t the best one for me. I pretty much had the hangover from hell but it couldn\u2019t really be helped. Had to get up and active again. And I knew I only had myself to blame *g*

I thought that my first item in the program was the group photo in the morning. However, when I started to look for my ticket for it, I couldn\u2019t find it. I was afraid I had lost it. I went to the photo room to talk about it and was told that my ticket didn\u2019t actually include the group photo. I was quite surprised since the lower level tickets did include it. I was explained that I got the individual photos but not the group photo and if I wanted the group photo, I would need to pay for it. However, I wasn\u2019t going to shell out close to \u20ac100 for one photo on top of everything I had already paid for. I really began to feel that the VIP ticket hadn\u2019t been worth its price.

The first panel that morning was Scott\u2019s. I opened the panel with a question. Or that was my plan but once I got to the mike I totally forgot what I had been about to ask. I told him that I blamed him since he had poured me all that wine the previous night. I did then add that I might have poured myself some wine as well so maybe it was my own fault too. He just laughed. However, luckily my question also came back to me and I asked him if there was anything he could tell us about his new theater project. He said that all he could say was that it was going to be in the Fall. I told him that I had been bummed that I couldn\u2019t have come to see him do \u201c12 Angry men\u201d and that I had been in the US when it was on but on the wrong coast. I did further ask him if the new project was again going to be in LA. He said he couldn\u2019t say where it was going to be but that it wasn\u2019t going to be in LA. He had actually asked if he could talk about the project in the convention but he had pretty much been told to keep his mouth shut about it.

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Someone asked him about why he didn\u2019t wear glasses when all the other guys in the convention had glasses on. He just said that he had been lucky with not needing them yet. He has worn glasses for many roles but doesn\u2019t need them in RL.

Was asked about playing an instrument and he said he has played a lot of instruments during school years. In college he had to give it up since there was no musical training offered at his college. He also mentioned that during his school years he did quite a few musicals.

Further about music, he said that originally it was going to be him singing the opera parts when Ted was that singing waitress at the Italian restaurant but in the end Ron didn\u2019t think he was good enough singer and they got someone else to do it.

When asked what he thinks the message of QAF is, he said it\u2019s pretty much the speech Ted gives Emmett at the \u201cSee the light\u201d story line. I think that\u2019s really well said and I agree with that.

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He was also asked the question about why such a big part of the fanbase is female but I can\u2019t remember what he replied to it.

When asked about TV shows he likes, he mentioned at least Sherlock, Breaking Bad and Downton Abbey. He especially mentioned how he finds the concept of Sherlock interesting to have just three episodes and then having to wait ages for the next ones. Made me think of a certain friend of mine who is very frustrated by the long hiatus between seasons. Yes, <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a>\"P1000407\"<\/a>

He was also asked how far he would go for a role and he said that he would be prepared to go pretty far. He mentioned that the diet he had to go to for the crystal meth arc on QAF had been brutal. He also brought up Dallas Buyers Club and how he appreciates the effort the actors had done in that to look the way they did. He had really enjoyed the movie.

I went to ask another question from him but at first I had a comment to him about how many times when I heard his play \u201c12 angry men\u201d being talked about, I couldn\u2019t help but think about the play \u201c12 horny men\u201d the characters went to see in QAF. Scott laughed and said that the play had been nothing like that. He also said that he was sure the other actors wouldn\u2019t mind him saying that but he was pretty sure no-one would want to see that cast naked. He also gave a short explanation what the play had been about.

My actual question to him was about his role in Bones and if he was going to be in the show again. He had no idea but he did hope he would. He did say that the last time he was in the show, it was supposed to be some completely different person but at the last minute they had changed it to his character. He does feel that the character is quite well liked so it\u2019s possible there will be more of him at some point. I also asked him at what point did he find out that Michelle was going to be in the same episode. He said that he only found out when they were filming. They didn\u2019t have any scenes together but one day they did find some time to hang out in their trailers together and had had nice time catching up.

Then someone asked him what his best moment as an actor had been. He started with talking about some play he had done in Chicago. Unfortunately I didn\u2019t catch the name of the play. Then he also mentioned doing QAF and seeing the effect it had and continues to have for people. Having people come to him and thank him for his work in the show makes him humble and thankful.

Then there was a question that was actually in the form of \u201cWhat makes you sick of life?\u201d but Scott heard it like he was asked what he seeks in life. He said he seeks love and laughter in life. The person who had asked the question also wanted him to answer the actual question. Scott didn\u2019t look too sure about that at first but then he said that he doesn\u2019t like bullying, people thinking they deserve more than others in life than other people and guns.

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Was asked about living in LA. He doesn\u2019t like the traffic or the isolation. He says it takes forever to get from place to place and you don\u2019t even get to see people who live pretty close to you that often. He said he had just moved to area called Silverlake and really liked living there. He also mentioned that Peter was living close-by as well.

The earth quakes that had happened in LA lately were brought up and he said he\u2019s not really scared of them. He knows it\u2019s quite possible that there\u2019s a big one coming but there\u2019s no sense in living in constant fear. He brought up a discussion he had once had with Sharon Gless\u2019s husband after they moved to Florida since one reason he had given for the move was the fear of earth quakes. Scott had just replied that he didn\u2019t quite get that since there were pretty much guaranteed hurricanes in Florida every single year and he much preferred the possibility of an occasional earth quake to yearly hurricanes.

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Scott was also asked about what he would change in QAF if there was a remake. He said that first of all the show would be renamed \u201cTed\u201d. Then Brian would be the custodian in Ted\u2019s building. On a more serious note he said that seasons 1 and 3 had been his favorites. Season 2 had been too goofy for him. He also added that he wouldn\u2019t change any of the cast.

After the panel ended, I dashed up to get my photo taken with Gale. However, when I got there, I was told that he had already left. I pointed out that according to the program there was still about 10-15 minutes left of photos with him and I thought I could trust the schedule. They did tell me that they were trying to get him come back. I wasn\u2019t the only one there. Finally they told us that he was going to be there soon. That soon proved to be about 15 minutes. Almost at the same time with him also Peter and Scott got there since they were due for a duo photo session.

When I walked to my photo with Gale we exchanged a few pleasantries and I took my position next to him. He had this really tight grip of my waist which made me pretty much lean on him, not that I minded really. *g*

When that photo was done, I returned outside to wait for the few other people with Gale to be taken and then being admitted back in for my photo with Peter and Scott. I could hear them laughing inside and would have given anything to see what was going on *g*

A few minutes later I got in to get the photo with Peter and Scott. They both greeted me and I went to stand between them to get my photo. After the photo they said something about me getting them all fresh.

Then I dashed back downstairs for Randy\u2019s panel which had already started so I probably missed a few questions.

He was asked if he would want to have a role in Girls. He said that he would absolutely love to be on Girls and would play any part in it. He said that his favorite character is Hannah.

Someone asked him about the Season 4 premiere clothes but don\u2019t remember why or what he replied to it.

\"P1000415\"<\/a>

He told us that he would love to do theater in Europe but that it\u2019s very difficult for and American actor to get a role in theater in Europe. He would like to do Shakespeare and when asked which play, he said all of them.

I got up to ask him about seeing Drowned Man, a production of Punch Drunk in London last Fall. However, before I managed to ask the question, he suddenly said \u201cBAH\u201d into the mike. For a few seconds I was a bit confused but then I heard laughter and cheering from the hall and turned to look. I saw that a few friends of mine had just walked in and were cheering. Made the connection then. There\u2019s a running joke about three friends of mine forming a band called \u201cBAH\u201d. Two of those friends were present in the convention. Randy is aware of the joke so I guess he was just welcoming them. *g* I turned back to him and said something about him probably just making their day.

Then I got back to my question. He said he had really enjoyed seeing Drowned Man. And he went on for a short explanation about what the Drowned Man was. He then said that he had also seen the production in New York and had found the experience quite similar. I commented there that I had actually found the experiences quite different but maybe it was because in New York I actually had no idea what to expect and was lost. In London I knew a bit better what was going to happen. I cheekily asked if he had seen the guy in London who just suddenly stripped bare ass naked and started rolling in the sand. He said that he had sure seen him. I commented something about finding it interesting and he smirked at me and said something on the lines how he was sure I had. I also asked him if being part of a Punch Drunk production and he said that in theory it would be an interesting experience but on the other hand he likes the way the plays he does are built that you only had to be on stage for a few hours and then you can go home, whereas on Punch Drunk productions the actors have to do the same thing over and over again for several hours. He also said that he has the impression that they aren\u2019t paid too well. He has a friend working the NYC production and he said he would need to talk with that friend about the experience.

\"P1000416\"<\/a>

Being on stage makes him happy.

He would love to be part of Cirque du Soleil but doesn\u2019t feel that he\u2019s good enough.

Would love to have no regrets in life.

Was asked about his favorite place in Paris and he mentioned some park.

Someone else asked him about visiting museums and he said he thinks he had already answered that question but went on to list a few of his favorite museums in the world, all contemporary I think.

I had gotten up to ask a question again. Before I got the question out, Randy told me that I should have my own talk show with the way I come up with new questions all the time. I got all flustered at that point and he noticed it. He laughed and asked if he had just embarrassed me. I admitted that maybe a little and added that he has the habit of doing that. He agreed with me but then told me that he thinks that I don\u2019t actually mind but if I did mind, he would promise to stop doing that. I did have to admit that I didn\u2019t mind.

So finally I got to my question which was actually for a friend. And I started the question by telling Randy that I was asking the question on behalf of a friend and he looked right at her then. I asked him if he would have interest in taking QWAN on a tour. He said that it would definitely be an interesting idea but finding suitable venues for them to perform in might be challenging and also finding the right audience for the shows.

There was a question about his favorite moments in QAF. He said he liked filming the end of 122 and the scene where Justin get hit over the head with the bat because they had already wrapped filming and were celebrating with some champagne when Randy was told that they hadn\u2019t gotten that one scene and he had to go back to filming while feeling buzzy about the champagne. He proceeded to demonstrate how he had to spend an hour just whipping his head around and pretending to be hit over the head with the bat. He also said that doing the party scenes was fun since occasionally they would start to do their best to get the other actors in the scene to crack up and ruin the scene that way.

\"P1000420\"<\/a>

He was also asked if he ever hates acting. He did admit that it\u2019s hard work but also what he has always wanted to do.

Had to run out of the panel a bit before it ended because I had a M&G with Scott starting. In the end I could have stayed a bit longer since they were running behind in schedule and we had to wait Scott for about 10 minutes. The M&G was again quite relaxed and we talked about random things. Most have escaped me but I do remember Scott telling us about this special diet he\u2019s on which means he\u2019s not allowed to eat quite a few things. He had a list on his mobile about the stuff he wasn\u2019t allowed to eat and it was a pretty long list. Someone joked that maybe it would be easier to make a list of foods he was allowed to eat. He also talked about going to an acupuncturist and how, despite his skepticism, seemed to be working for him.

He also talked about going to a psychic through a recommendation from Sharon. He said he had only gone once and didn\u2019t really believe in it but that there was some stuff the psychic said that he did find a bit disturbing since he didn\u2019t think he had told her some of the stuff she seemed to know and wondered if he had given some hints anyway without realizing it.

I\u2019m sure other things were discussed as well but the details escape me now.

After the M&G it was again time to dash, this time to Gale\u2019s panel. Due to Scott\u2019s M&G being late I was afraid I had again missed most of the panel but found out that Gale\u2019s panel had also started late so managed to catch most of it, which was good. On my way there I saw that they had done the raffle for Randy and Gale double coffee later that afternoon. I had bought a few tickets for it just for the fun of it the previous day and decided to check my tickets while I was there. Color me surprised when I realized I had actually won. Got handed the ticket for the coffee as well a surprise picture of the guys on stage during the opening which I could also get autographed later that day. A few friends came out of the hall just then and I had to tell them about me winning and they told me I was just way too lucky.

Then it was time for me to actually enter the hall and go listen Gale\u2019s panel. I think the first question I heard was about Brian\u2019s first time and what Gale thought it had been like. He said that he thinks Brian lied about not being scared.

\"P1000421\"<\/a>

Then there was this weird question who he thinks Todd is. Gale seemed to have trouble understanding what the person asking the question was after and so did pretty much everyone in the hall. He gave some kind of random answers to that about how Todd was Todd and I think he might have asked the person who asked the question if they thought he was someone else in disguise or something.

\"P1000423\"<\/a>

Someone asked him about Rehab again and he repeated pretty much the same thing he had said at the coffee that he unfortunately had no idea what was happening with it or if it was ever coming out.

\"P1000424\"<\/a>

He admits that he\u2019s had problems with some cast mates in the past in some projects and he also knows that some cast mates have sometimes had problems with him.

\"P1000425\"<\/a>

Then he was asked what his best\/worst moment with a fan has been. He deliberately misunderstood the question and started to talk about how he likes ceiling fans since they cool the room down and how he once stuck his finger into a table fan and said that had been a bad moment. However, then he got more serious and said that having someone come up to him and tell him that his work has influenced them is a great thing to happen.

\"P1000427\"<\/a>

He was also asked the question what he would have changed in QAF. He said that he would have changed lots of things about his own performance and some decisions he had made. However, he wouldn\u2019t elaborate on those. He did say that he wouldn\u2019t change much of the end that he was okay with the way the series ended. However, he did say that if he had a choice there would have been a bar fight with some bottles being thrown and a gun battle in the end *g* It also seemed he had some issues with the wardrobe since he said something about changing that. And in the end he also added that he would definitely put the original music back in the series.

\"P1000429\"<\/a>

Someone asked him if he thought that in the end with Brian dancing alone in Babylon, he was like a zombie. Gale again had some hard time understanding the question but when he got it, he pretty much agreed. He said that Brian\u2019s soul was gone and he was emotionally dead. I find that actually a pretty apt description.

\"P1000430\"<\/a>

Then he was asked about doing Thirst. He talked a bit about his character and said that his character is a somewhat shady person and gave a list of slightly unsavory occupations his character could represent. I think a pimp and a drug dealer were at least mentioned. He said that his character makes the main character see how bad his life has gotten or something on those lines. He also said that he doesn\u2019t know exactly what\u2019s happening with the film but he thinks that it might be going on some festivals.

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\"P1000437\"<\/a>
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I had gotten up to ask a question as well but they told me that they weren\u2019t taking any more questions. Since I had the duo coffee with him and Randy coming up, I didn\u2019t really mind. I think Gale\u2019s panel was the only one where I didn\u2019t ask any questions *g*

So it was the duo coffee with Gale and Randy for me at that point. I once more made my way to the top floor where it was held. By the time I got in, the \u201cbest\u201d seats were already taken but I took a seat next to the chairs that Gale and Randy were going to sit in. Randy came in first and went to sit on the chair further away from me which would have then meant that Gale would have sat next to me. However, Randy got up to get himself some tea and while he was doing that, Gale came in and took the chair Randy had just vacated so when Randy sat down again, he was in the seat next to me.

I had sort of decided that this time around I would really stay quiet and just concentrate on listening what was being discussed. I do have to admit that I was starting to feel pretty tired so a chance to listen was a welcome change. I did have one question in mind which I had thought to ask Gale at his panel but the first question that was asked was quite similar to what I had thought to ask so that took care of that. They were asked about if they had interest in doing work behind the camera as well. Can\u2019t remember exactly what they said but I think they both said that they would like that.

One person said that she was going to go the way they go at Inside the Actor\u2019s Studio and asked them to tell us what was their favorite word, their least favorite word and their favorite swear word. I remember that Randy\u2019s favorite word was something quite complicated sounding and I asked him what it meant but even the explanation escapes me now. However, it did sound fancy. His least favorite word is \u201cblah\u201d and his favorite swearword is \u201ccunt\u201d. I do know it\u2019s a very bad word and very offensive. it seemed some people in the room felt that word should not be said aloud at all but Randy kept repeating it a few times. He even said that we should go around the room and everyone should say the word. That idea was vetoed. From Gale I only caught the swearword. His favorite swearword was sucka. Didn\u2019t catch the others.

I did ask them one question which was that if they could meet anyone from the past who would they like to meet. They gave it some thought. Randy replied first and said he would meet an actress who was in the play A Doll\u2019s House. He said the name too but it wasn\u2019t familiar to me and can\u2019t remember it now. Gale said he\u2019d like to meet Johnny Cash. He also mentioned a few other names who I think are also musicians but those names escape me too.

At one point in the coffee Randy moved to sit in such a way on his chair that his legs were folded on the chair beside him. That meant that he was leaning to the other edge of his chair. This edge was the one next to me and he actually ended up leaning so that if I had been sitting on my chair normally, he would have ended up leaning on me. I naturally leaned away from him to avoid any accidental contact.

The whole coffee passed in a pretty relaxed manner and it was over way too soon. At that point it was time to have lunch so I located my friends and we had a lazy lunch break in one of the hotel rooms just lazing around.

As luck would have it, the first thing after lunch was Randy\u2019s M&G. At that point I was actually starting to feel ashamed of all the extras I had since it seemed I was in every single thing.

During the lunch I had been dared to ask one particular question from Randy. I started the M&G with that and told Randy that I had been dared by my friend Sandra to ask the question. He looked slightly worried. I guess he remembers what our dares are sometimes like since he\u2019s heard stories of them. He said to me that he reserves the right to refuse to answer. So I asked him if he has ever come in like a wrecking ball. The question probably left everyone else in the room feeling quite confused. First Randy laughed and then totally seriously asked if I meant in a relationship. I felt mortified and told him that it was supposed to be a jokey question. He laughed again and said he knew that. He went on saying that there was history to the question. He began to explain how in the convention in London Sandra had thrown herself down some stairs while singing Wreckingball by Miley Cyrus. I hurried to correct that she had actually crawled down the stairs, not thrown herself down them. Randy continued to say that it\u2019s a tradition that she makes those videos and that he\u2019s taking full credit for them.

Then the discussion moved to other subjects and I once more decided to stay quiet for the rest of the M&G. I managed that pretty well until Randy started to talk about how they are building all these great theaters in NYC but how no-one is ready to shell out money for actors to actually put plays on in them. I commented that hadn\u2019t he posted an article about the same subject a while ago and we continued to talk about the subject for a while. Randy said that it\u2019s actually ridiculous that the prices for theater tickets are so high in NYC. Theaters don\u2019t receive much of government funding. I think he said that it has its roots in history. Arts used to receive funding from government but then someone realized that those funds could be used to finance also plays that weren\u2019t to everyone\u2019s taste. Those plays were of course plays dealing with gay-rights. All funding got then cut. This happened far in the past but the situation is still the same. Randy even says that it feels weird for him do parts in a play that has ticket prices he wouldn\u2019t be willing to pay himself. He said that the most he\u2019s usually ready to pay is $40.

Once more my memory fails me at everything else that was said at the M&G. However, again it felt that it was over way too soon. I walked out of the room but didn\u2019t go far since I had a M&G with Gale starting pretty much right away. We had to wait a few minutes and then we were admitted back into the room. A few minutes later Gale arrived and the M&G got on its way.

I do have to say that the beginning of the M&G was the most awkward experience of the whole convention. First there was a lady who started to talk about a student film project that had been in contact with Gale\u2019s agent about having him appear in the film. Gale didn\u2019t seem to have any idea what she was talking about. This went on for a while.

Then the talk was turned to Defiance and how Gale\u2019s character had been killed in that. One lady started to talk something about some show she had watched where they had also killed some character and then ratings had dropped and I think there was also severed heads and bodies at different ends of the room and such mentioned. It all got quite confusing and I\u2019m not sure if anyone knew what we were talking about anymore.

Talk went back to Defiance and this is where I\u2019m not exactly sure if Gale was telling the truth or just pulling our legs but he told us how the way his character had died had been planned from the beginning and how in the second season he would be returning as a hallucination since someone was poisoning the water or something. He also talked about how his characters death had just been a start for some other character who was going to join the show. I had hard time following the whole thing.

Someone asked about if the water in the shower scenes in QAF was warm or cold. When Gale laughed and said that it was of course warm and that they had unions in place just because of that to make sure they didn\u2019t have to do any unpleasant things. It was then asked how they kept the steam from the cameras and Gale said there were these special fans that pushed the steam away.

There was also a question what he thinks happened with his character from TSC. He said he had no idea but it\u2019s possible he moved to Vegas.

I asked him about the Lock and what\u2019s happening next with that. He said they are just in the process of writing the first draft and will see what happens with that. He said that with the Kickstarter money they managed to collect, they will be able to get either three drafts written or alternatively two drafts and some revisions. He wasn\u2019t able to say much about it.

When the M&G was over it was again time for autographs. Once more I could have gone in right away when they started but I chose to stay back to wait with my friends. When they were allowed in the autograph room, I went with them. Once more the guys were sitting in the same order. I had the picture I had won in the raffle for them all to sign and in addition I had a few items for Randy and Gale. The photo I had gotten of them and got signed is the one I\u2019m using as my icon in these posts.

Had nice time talking with first Peter and then Scott while waiting for the queue to move. It looked like most people were just queuing for Randy and Gale so it was moving pretty slowly. I once more told them both that it had been nice seeing them and thanked them for answering all my questions. Scott commented something about me seeming to have a lot of questions and I told him how Randy had told me that I should get my own talk show. Scott thought I should name it Pia Presents and that\u2019s the reason why my photos are watermarked with that *g* My friend, Kimmah, suggested that I should ask Scott to be my first guest.

Then it was Randy\u2019s turn and I told him that Sandra pretty much wants to kill me because I asked him that Wreckingball question at the M&G. Randy just laughed at that. While he was signing the photo, I told him that Scott had just named my talk show. He was all disappointed since he had just signed the picture with \u201cPia\u2019s talk show, my favorite\u201d. Aww. I also told him that I felt like I had been part of every single thing he had done during the convention and he was just all \u201cwell, you were.\u201d But then continued to say that it was just great because I was the life of the party in conventions with all my questions. Such a nice thing for him to say. Then it was still Gale\u2019s autograph. Told him too that it had been nice seeing him and thanked for answering all my questions.

Then it was just time to wait around for them to be done with the autographs so that the final panels would start. According to the program the autographs were supposed to end at 17:45 with a 45 minute group panel and a 30 minute closing following. In the end they got done with the autographs only around 18:30. The group panel started right after that.

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\"P1000456\"<\/a>
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I forgot to make notes of the final panel so unfortunately I only remember the questions I went up there to ask. It was amusing when I got up from my seat to walk to the mike, I heard Scott say \u201cPia Presents\u201d from the stage. In the beginning there were some comments about the haul of gifts especially Randy and Gale had gotten. That sort of prompted my question. I asked them was what was the best\/worst gift they had ever been given by a fan. Randy immediately said syringes in a mustard packet. When he didn\u2019t go on, I cheekily asked if that was the best or the worst gift and he gave me this very disapproving glance that seemed to say \u201creally?\u201d Well, my question had been two parts and he only gave me one. Unfortunately can\u2019t remember what Peter or Scott said. Gale said that he had once been given the key to a hotel room. He wouldn\u2019t specify either If that was the best or the worst gift.

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I continued right away with my second question. I asked them if they had any favorite charities and what they were. Peter said that he was on the board of GLAAD in LA so he picked that one. Scott mentioned some agency that deals with adoption issues. Randy\u2019s was the Ali Forney center. Gale\u2019s reply was a children\u2019s literacy charity. All very good causes.

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There were some other questions asked and then I was just about to go back up to ask more questions when they suddenly told us that the panel was over and proceeded to thank the crew in the convention and the guests who just said a quick bye. Peter told us that they were all taking a part of us with them.

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Then it was over. I was left feeling pretty empty and disappointed. According to the program we were supposed to get about 1h 15 minutes of panels but ended up with just about 20-25 minutes. They did promptly end the convention at the time it was stated in the program but considering that things had been running late the whole day, I feel that they should have let the final panel go on a bit longer. I don\u2019t know if the guests\u2019 contracts had something about them having to be out of there by 19:00 or something but it was just a huge disappointment. We remained in the hall a while longer just talking among each other and people were saying bye to each other. I think most people were feeling quite disappointed by the way the whole thing ended. The guests didn\u2019t really even say a proper bye.

After the hall started to empty, this one woman came to me and asked if I was really going to go through with the talk show idea. When I replied that not really, she said I would probably be really good at it. What a nice compliment!

Now this concludes my report from the convention. As a final word about the convention I do have to say that while I had my doubts, the convention actually did end up being pretty good all in all. There were things that in my opinion could have been done better. I don\u2019t know why there were more tickets sold to the Close Up and Dinners than originally advertised but that\u2019s not really any of my business. I just feel that people got cheated by that since they didn\u2019t end up getting quite what they had paid for. I\u2019ve heard quite a few people say that the Dinners really weren\u2019t worth the money which makes me glad I wasn\u2019t there. Sandra, who was there did end up enjoying the dinner at the end but that was only after Randy moved around and gave other people than his PA and the people sitting right next to him a chance to interact with him.

I also feel that the program could have been designed better. Again I don\u2019t know what the actor\u2019s contracts said about breaks and such but I\u2019ve done a lot of conventions where there have been hardly any overlaps and I\u2019m sure those actors had rules about breaks as well. I do hope that if they end up running another convention, they will improve the schedule somewhat. There are lots of conventions, mainly in the UK, who have been running with the same kind of programs for several years and those programs have been proven to work quite well. And with more attendees than what Queens of the Road had. If I heard correctly, there were around 200 tickets sold. It wouldn\u2019t be too hard to organize a schedule for four guests and 200 attendees without having such a huge amount of overlaps.

However, despite all my griping, I did have great time. It\u2019s mostly due to the guests. So a big thank you to Scott, Peter, Randy and Gale, even if they will never read this. *g*
And then there\u2019re of course the wonderful friends I had there with me. I\u2019d like to extend my thanks to Sandra, Kimmah, Sarah, Donna, Am\u00e9lie and Betty for being such wonderful friends as you are! It wouldn\u2019t have been the same without you! Again so many memories to cherish!
It was also great to see many wonderful familiar faces who I\u2019ve seen in past events. There are too many to be named and I don\u2019t want to offend anyone by leaving them out so just a general thank you to all for being part of the experience as well!
And I also met some wonderful new people in the convention so my thanks to you all as well!
And finally a thank you to everyone who has been reading these reports and leaving comments! Those comments mean a lot to me too since writing these reports is quite time consuming so it\u2019s nice to hear that my efforts are appreciated.

<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551915.html?view=comments#comments","category":["bilbao","conventions","scott lowell","peter paige","randy harrison","queens of the road","gale harold"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551444.html","pubDate":"Sat, 05 Apr 2014 21:42:59 GMT","title":"QUEENS OF THE ROAD - part 2","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551444.html","description":"Okay, here's the next part of my report. This one includes panels, M&Gs and Coffee breaks with the guests on the Saturday. Beware, it's long. :)

There are quite a few photos. The same disclaimers apply :)

Previous part<\/a>



It felt like the alarm went off way too early. Since I had a VIP ticket, I had the breakfast included in the room. I made my way downstairs to eat something even if I wasn't feeling particularly hungry. I did suspect I would need the energy during the day, especially with the program being built the way it was, I suspected I might not even have time to pee, let alone eat anything. Managed to stuff some food down my throat and then returned upstairs to get ready for the day.

The first item on the program was an Opening. I took that to mean that all the guests would come out for the duration of the panel (30min), say a few words, maybe answer some general questions and such, the way I've gotten used to. However, the opening was scheduled to start at 9am. We were let in the hall about 9:10am and the whole thing only started about 9:25am. All the guests did come out and said a few words but it was over pretty quickly.

Below some pics from the opening

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The next item was Randy\u2019s single panel. I wasn't quite clear on how you were supposed to ask questions so when they said it was time for questions, I sort of half raised my hand and I guess that attracted Randy\u2019s attention to me. He looked at me and said \u201cYou used to have pink hair once, right?\u201d I could hear my friends cracking up somewhere in the hall and I had trouble keeping a straight face too. However, I did tell him that he got it wrong. I did add that I had red-purplish highlights once but no pink. He seemed quite convinced of the fact that I had had pink hair.

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After that the panel got started. I did my best to make notes of the panels but I do apologize if I get some things wrong. So first Randy was asked about recording music. He did say that it\u2019s something he would like to do one day but just hadn\u2019t had the time for it. He did say that he is going to music and singing lessons whenever possible and you never know what\u2019s going to happen in the future.

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Next he was asked about his thoughts before going on stage. Unfortunately didn\u2019t catch his reply to that.

Then it was time for me ask him a question. I asked him if there were going to be any more of those \u201cinstructional videos\u201d he has been doing with Phillip Tarantula and Jenn Harris. He did say that they had a few ready and that those would be coming out at some point. I continued with a question about if it was going to be just the three of them in all future videos or if they were planning on possibly having guest stars there. He said that the videos they had made that far had only the three of them in them but it was possible that at some point they might have the other QWAN members guest starring.

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Then he talked in length about some play but unfortunately I missed the gist of it.

Someone asked him if he was still studying French but he said that he hadn\u2019t done that seriously for a few years. He claimed getting lessons in NYC is very expensive. He also said that only when he tried to talk to someone in French, did he realize how rusty his French had gotten. He would really much like to be able to speak it better.

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Then he was asked what had been his best moment coming off stage. He did have to think about it for a while but in the end he replied that he had to pick Tommy.

In his opinion the best thing about living in NYC is the feeling of belonging in a community.

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Randy\u2019s dream character would be to play some old man roles but he knows he still has to wait before he can qualify for those roles. He said he would like to at some point play Uncle Vanja and all the characters from Beckett\u2019s plays.

Then I was up again. Before my question, I did joke at Randy that as we had discussed the previous day, I obviously never ask any questions. He replied with something on the lines of how I was always so quiet. My actual question to him was about QWAN. I asked him if they had any new material planned or were they possible going to do more shows with the material they already have. He said that they did have some ideas but it could well be a few years since they are all busy doing their own thing at the moment. He also said that the next thing they will do will be something different. He visioned it to be something that would be staged and also off-book. The two readings they are now doing are just that, readings with just a few props. He also said that he doesn\u2019t see them doing the readings in NYC again since he feels that everyone who wants to see it there, has already seen it.

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Next there was a question about Berkshires and if he misses doing it and\/or thinks about going back. He said that he doesn\u2019t really miss it. He took part for six or seven years and in his opinion that is enough.

He would love to be part of Angels of America on Broadway.

Next question was about doing musicals. Randy replied that he does musicals every few years but doesn\u2019t want to do just them. He\u2019s quite happy with doing them just every once in a while.

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Then there was a question about doing commercials. He seemed open to doing them as long as he believed in the product he was advertising. He wouldn\u2019t want to do any commercials for products that can give you cancer or for companies with bad ethics.

Next there was some talk about politics but unfortunately I missed some of it. He did mention right-wing groups and how they occasionally seem to get a lot of people behind them.

Someone asked him about Such Good People and when we might get to see it but he couldn\u2019t give a clear answer to that. He sort of implied that after he finished filming the movie, he hadn\u2019t heard much about it.

Then he was asked about what he would change if there was a remake of QAF. He was asked if he would still play the same character. He immediately said that he would want to play the evil twin to Justin.

Someone asked about his favorite shows and he listed at least House of Cards, Looking, Orange is the new Black and Girls, with the last one being his favorite.

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Then it was again me up there. I asked him about going to museums and if he had a favorite one in the world. He said he didn\u2019t have a favorite one but he did enjoy contemporary art. He listed a few museums that had contemporary art that he liked to visit. He did say that he likes to go to MOMA but that it\u2019s too expensive. I commented that it\u2019s free on Friday evenings but he claimed there were always huge lines in then. I told him that I had no trouble getting in when I was in NYC last Fall and said that it had only taken me about 15-20 minutes to get in even if the line was around a few blocks by the time I got there. He just said that I must have gotten lucky.

Some talk about trapezing.

He was asked about his favorite thing in Bilbao and he said he wanted to buy a house on the beach. I almost commented to that by asking if Scott and Peter had shared their plans to buy that one house with him since it seemed they had dedicated a floor of it for him too but decided that I had been up enough by then.

Someone asked if he ever watched QAF and he said that he thinks he has seen all of it at some point or other. His favorite episode is 122 and when he was asked why he just said \u201cbecause I get hit over the head with a bat.\u201d

He didn\u2019t watch the Oscars and doesn\u2019t like to watch other award shows either.

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Then there was a question about what was the most challenging part in playing Justin. He felt it was hard to have the same part for five years. He has a slight case of ADD which makes him want to do something else right after he starts doing something. He felt it was hard to remain concentrated. That being said, he feels that now he would be ready to be part of a TV show again. He has said it before and I think he repeated it, that after QAF ended he wanted to stay faraway from TV shows but now he feels ready again.

Was asked what would attract him to a show but unfortunately I missed the answer.
ETA:<\/b> He is drawn more to comedy now (edited thanks to <\/a>oceanreign<\/b><\/a><\/span>)

Has been to see the new Broadway version of Waiting for Godot and quite enjoyed it. He preferred Ian McKellan.

Then there was some talk about Bang Bang You\u2019re Dead. He got offered the role because the producer of the film was a QAF fan. Randy had enjoyed working with Ben Foster and had kept in contact with him for a while after filming. I think he was asked about his thoughts about arranging a shooting as revenge since he said something about arranging a school shooting is a very bad idea (duh!). He also mentioned that he think the film is used as educational material in school at the moment.

What he loves about Justin? Justin was very young but at the same time sometimes the most mature person in the group.

Randy would like to do theater related teaching but not full-time. He thinks it might be fun to do workshops or something like that.

He wouldn\u2019t change a thing about the QAF finale and really liked it. He also said that he knows people don\u2019t like the answer.

At some point he was also asked about his friend Matt Wilkas being on Looking and if he would like to be on the show as well. He said he had tried auditioning for it several times but hadn\u2019t gotten any of the parts. (Personal note. Makes me wonder if the producers don\u2019t want him on the show because of QAF since they seem to have wanted to distance themselves from QAF in every way.)

After Randy\u2019s panel ended it was time for Peter\u2019s panel. I knew I would have to leave in the middle of it but decided to stay in the hall as long as possible so that I could catch at least some of his panel.

The questions were not surprisingly started by The Fosters. Peter seemed really enthusiastic when he talked about it and he said he has really enjoyed doing the show. He had only good things to say about everyone involved in the program. He also said that he knows very well that not everyone has the chance to see the show by legal ways and that he doesn't care if people download it, as long as they watch it and talk about it.

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He did comment how the first season has been a pretty bumpy ride.

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He was also asked about working on Bones. He said he really liked being on the show and how Emily had been a pleasure to work with, but David not so much.

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He says he\u2019s the happiest when he\u2019s directing. He said he\u2019s happier now than he was when he was still doing acting.

I got up to ask a question about him how it has felt to \u201cchange sides\u201d. He told me he has really enjoyed it and said that even while doing QAF he showed signs of being interested to be behind the camera. He said that he used to be a pretty much a pest on the set with going around and wanting to know how everything was made. The others would return to their trailers and such but he would remain on set to see what happened after filming was finished.

When he was finished with his answer, I realized that I was about to be late from my next activity, coffee break with Randy, so I had to dash out of the hall right away and foot it towards to where the M&Gs\/Coffees were held. Was possibly the last one to arrive but at least Randy wasn\u2019t there yet. He did arrive quite soon after me, though.

There was a moment of general activity around when everyone were getting their coffees\/teas but then things settled down and it was time for questions. And once more there was silence in the room so I decided to open with the subject that was on my mind and asked him why they had been talking about my hair during the dinner. Randy laughed and said that he actually had no idea. He then directed a question to Sandra who was also present, to ask if she remembered how it had come up but she had no idea. I threw in that she had been drunk. Randy\u2019s comment was that she obviously could hold her liquor well then since she hadn\u2019t appeared drunk.

Then he returned to the subject of my hair and kept insisting that it had been pink at some point. I still kept denying and said I did have some highlights but those hadn\u2019t been pink either. Then a few other people threw in that they remembered me having those highlights and Randy looked at me with a look that seemed to say \u201csee?\u201d Then he said to the room in general that someone had suggested that he was mixing me up with someone else but that he could never mix me up with anyone else. At that point I commented something about how I wasn\u2019t exactly sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

In the end it was concluded that I\u2019d had a tuft of colored hair. Randy still maintained that it had been pink while in my opinion it had been more reddish\/purplish but I conceded the issue. I did have a thought of finding a photo of that hair on my mobile but thought that might have gone too far. And I also sort of wanted to move away from the subject since I didn\u2019t think the others were finding it too interesting. *g*

I have to admit that I didn\u2019t make notes at the M&Gs and Coffees so my recollections from them are so very vague. Sort of regretting not taking notes now but can\u2019t be helped anymore.

The coffee went pretty well. There were a few silences but luckily there were some questions people came up with. I did really hard to try and remember what was talked about but I\u2019m drawing a blank.

At one point I asked him about possible getting the short film Thinking distributed on DVD in Europe since he had talked about that the last time we saw. He preceded his answer with a short explanation what the film was and then said that they actually had some guy who had all the material and was going to edit it and at some point it was going to released again and made available to purchase. He had no idea when that was possibly going to happen but he promised to let people know.

Someone brought up the topic of how they had changed all the music in the show when it came available on Netflix. It seemed Randy hadn't heard that before and was quite surprised. There was a lengthy discussion about how the music was actually pretty integral to the show. And there's even dialogue that refers to the songs and if the songs are different, the dialogue might not make sense. There were comments about how it was hard to think about the show without certain songs. Save the Last Dance and Proud were at least mentioned.

When the coffee ended I knew that Gale\u2019s panel was starting but since I knew that I was going to miss most of it anyway due to having a M&G with Peter I decided to go and see if I could get my photo with Scott taken at that point. The way the program was built, that was pretty much my only chance. Scott\u2019s photo session was ongoing but since there hadn\u2019t been people queuing to take photos, they had let him to go and rest for a while so I had to wait. I was told it was going to be just a few minutes but it proved to be a bit more. I was already getting worried that I was going to be late from the M&G but then Scott showed up and I got a very nice huggy photo with him.

I had thought I might have time to catch a few minutes of Gale\u2019s panel but by the time I was done with the photo, it was already time to go up to the M&G room again for Peter. It was a pretty small group of people and the discussion flowed quite freely. All VIP tickets had the M&G included but I guess quite a few of them chose to stay and listen to Gale\u2019s panel instead of attending the M&G.

I started the M&G by saying how bad I had felt for dashing out of the room right after asking my question. Peter comforted me that he hadn\u2019t actually even noticed *g*

Again most of the discussion was concentrated around The Fosters. There was some talk about the finale. I told him that it had been a very bad idea for me to watch the finale on my way over to Bilbao since it had been very embarrassing to sit on the plane with tears streaming out of my eyes. I also asked if it had been intentional to make people cry with almost every episode. Peter simply answered \u201cyes\u201d but then elaborated that they knowingly handled pretty heavy stuff in the series but at the same time kept it to subjects that could touch anyone. He did deny that they would sit in the writers\u2019 room plotting for heart wrenching stuff but did say that they were aware of the effect some of the scenes might have on people.

There was also some talk about the finale. One person at the M&G said that her version of the finale cut off right before the end and she hadn\u2019t seen what happened in the last scene so Peter told her that. I do hope there was no-one at the M&G who hadn\u2019t seen it.

Talk about the tweeting that happens around the show. Peter said that they are actually one of the Top5 most tweeted shows which had been a surprise for them. I told him that I used to follow the official Twitter account but since they live-tweeted all the episodes and I could never watch the eps when they aired, I had to unfollow to keep myself from getting spoiled constantly.

And while we were on the subject of spoilers, I did mention that I had managed to get spoiled of one of the scenes in the finale because reading one of Peter\u2019s tweets. He did admit that he had tweeted that without thinking that not everyone might have seen the episode yet but at that point it had already been too late.

After the M&G ended I dashed down to get my photo done with Randy. At the door I was very sternly told that no hugs were allowed. That was quite fine by me since I hadn\u2019t thought about asking for a huggy photo from him. I know he doesn\u2019t feel comfortable with huggy photos so was just going to go with the normal pose since had nothing else in my mind.

Got the photo taken and then dashed back downstairs to see the duo panel with Peter and Scott. I missed the beginning due to having the photo taken but still managed to catch most of it. Unfortunately my notes fail me a little but writing what I can remember\/have written down.

First they were asked about the best moments of working together. I think they just said that it was all pretty wonderful. They had had good chemistry right from the beginning and gotten fast friends quickly on the set and were able to move that friendship to the screen. They also talked about how they had a habit of doing some of the background discussions in the way that was designated to make the other one struggle. Those dialogues were recorded in a studio in a way that one of them went in there first, came up with something to say to fill the scene and then the other one had to give appropriate responses. They said they never knew what the other one had come up.

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Then Peter brought up Bones and wanted to hear Scott\u2019s opinion about Emily and David but Scott wasn\u2019t really willing to talk about it and said that it possibly wasn\u2019t the time and place for that.

They were also asked what they thought about the fact that there were so many straight women fans of the show. Peter once more repeated the same thing he has said in many occasions, \u201cpeople came for the queer but stayed for the folk\u201d. I think that\u2019s really well said. People might have been attracted to the show by curiosity about what it was about but they stayed because they really enjoyed the story and the characters. They did also say that they think the producers were surprised by the amount of straight following the show got.

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Someone asked how they think Emmett and Ted met since it seemed they were both more friends of Michael than each other in the beginning and also from quite different worlds. They did think that Michael was the person who brought them together but they also stated that they think that the fact that Scott and Peter had such good chemistry with each other that it also influenced the way the friendship developed on the show.

The HIV-scare arc. The person who asked the question also said that the speech Ted gives Emmett at the \u201cSee the light\u201d scene is one of their favorite quotes and scenes in the series and that comment got quite a few approving noises from the room. Both Peter and Scott had really liked doing that story line but they also said it had been hard for them since they were so used to hanging out together and doing scenes together that when they didn\u2019t have that, it felt empty somehow.

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There was some talk about how their family reacted on them being on the show. Can\u2019t remember what exactly was said but I do remember Scott talking about how he had two families, his birth-one and then his adoptive-one. He was adopted as a baby but found his birth-family while filming QAF and has kept in contact with them. He did say that his birth-family is quite religious and they had some trouble accepting the role. And if memory serves, Peter\u2019s mom had some trouble with accepting the role but it had been her hairdresser that had made her change her mind. Peter told this story about how his mom had gone to the hairdresser\u2019s and the hairdresser had, without knowing the connection, started talking about QAF and how great show it was and how it was very well needed. Peter\u2019s mom had then told the hairdresser that her son was in the show but she wasn\u2019t too happy about it. The hairdresser had scolded her and told her how important it was for the community to have the show.

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At some point there was a question about how Brian seemed to have sex with everyone else except Emmett. Peter\u2019s comment to that was that it was probably because they just had nothing to offer to each other. They were at the opposite ends. And while they constantly got on each other\u2019s cases, they had respect towards each other.

They felt that the awkwardness that was there at the beginning of Ted\u2019s and Emmett\u2019s relationship showed quite well how awkward it was actually for them in the beginning. They felt that they transferred those feelings to the screen. The first kiss between Ted and Emmett was just as awkward as the first kiss between Scott and Peter would be.

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And then the possibility of a QAF movie was brought up but they didn\u2019t have much to say about that. Scott did mention that he was going to have lunch with CowLip when he returned home.

When that panel ended, it was time to get the double photo with Gale and Randy taken. With my VIP ticket I was able to jump the queue and get to the photo pretty quickly. The result looks a bit funny since it looks like I\u2019ve plastered myself against Gale\u2019s side and standing a bit further away from Randy but that\u2019s the result of me taking me place between them and then turning to say something to Randy just before the photo was taken which made me stand closer to Gale than Randy. Also Gale had the habit of taking a pretty tight hold of people in the photos while Randy just rested his arm on the person\u2019s waist.

After the photo I had a duo coffee with Peter and Scott. Unfortunately I\u2019m drawing a total blank on most of what was discussed there. I do remember having fun, though. It was again a pretty small group and felt more like just a group of people discussing about things than a question and answer session. They did show interest towards what the gay rights status was in our countries. We went around the group and everyone said a few words about what was happening in their countries. It was quite interesting to hear. And I did notice that my country is obviously lagging behind since quite a few countries already had equal rights and had had for a while. Well, hopefully later this year Finland will have that too.

After that coffee, it was time for a lunch break which I spent on a close-by mall with my friends. Wasn\u2019t feeling particularly hungry so just ended up picking some food from my friends\u2019 plates.

When the convention continued, it was time for Randy and Gale\u2019s duo panel. I guess no-one is surprised at this point that I got up to ask a question. I asked them how it felt like to be part of a show that even after all this time had such a huge following and very loyal fans. They were both very appreciative of it and said it was really great but also quite humbling.

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Since there was no-one else queuing for the mike, I continued with another question. I asked them the same question someone had asked Peter and Scott about the large female audience the show had. Unlike Peter and Scott they thought that the female audience had been expected by the series creators. When I commented that Peter and Scott had said differently, Gale just replied that they didn\u2019t know anything. He felt that the producers were experienced enough in the work that they knew that the show was going to attract audience from all over.

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Next they were asked about doing music. Randy said that he hope his parents would have had a better taste in music. Gale used to play air-guitar when younger.

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There was a question about the friendship between Michael and Brian. Gale felt that it was so strong because they had grown up together.

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Someone asked their thoughts about Sharon and they both said they really wished that she was there and what a great person she is.

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Then I got up to ask a question too. The unfortunate problem, however, was that the mike stopped working just then. At first I thought the person before me had accidentally turned it off but it seemed the batteries had ran out. They started to change them and I stood there joking at them how I had a habit of asking lots of questions and then added to Gale that he should just ask Randy. Randy just said that it was very true and then added that I could probably run the whole Q&A by myself if I wanted to. I might have blushed at that point. Then Gale offered his mike for me to ask the question and I told him that I needed him to answer the question I was about to ask as well and he just said I could bring the mike back to him after the question. I walked up to him, took the mike and walked back to the spot where you were supposed to ask the questions from.

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My question touched on a question I had asked Randy some time ago about who he\u2019d like to do a project with if he could pick from his former cast mates and he had picked Gale as the writer of that project. I asked Gale if he was willing to write that project for Randy. Randy seemed to remember the question and commented that hadn\u2019t he picked a job for everyone. I told him that it was Peter directing and Michelle producing but that had been just because I had told him to pick three people. I think they came up with a job for Scott too on the stage but can\u2019t remember what that was now. In the end Gale did say that he could very well be up for writing something for Randy.

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Next someone asked where they thought Brian and Justin were now. Not a very surprising question but made some people groan. Gale and Randy seemed to think for a while what to reply. They must have been asked that question a dozen times in the past. In the end Randy said that Justin passed away a year ago to which Gale added that Justin is now in an urn at the back of Brian\u2019s car.

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Continuing on the theme, there was a question about when do they think Brian fell in love with Justin. At first Gale said he had no idea since Brian was so obviously in denial but then said that it was probably at the end of 122 when he saw Justin almost being killed right in front of his eyes but not being able to do anything about it.

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There was a question about the QAF movie and if Brian and Justin would be together in it. Randy said that he had almost been booed off the stage in Cologne when he had told his thought about how he didn\u2019t think Brian and Justin would ever get back together after Justin went to New York so he didn\u2019t really want to answer the question anymore.

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I got up to ask a follow-up question to regarding the movie. I asked them didn\u2019t they think that if the movie was done through crowd funding that the fans would expect them to end up back together in it. At first Randy gave me this withering look and actually asked me \u201cPia, why are you doing this to me?\u201d I just smiled at him and waited. He went on to say that actually the expectation of them ending back together would be the exact reason not to do it.

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Next there was a question that I think has been called the most embarrassing question of the convention but I think the question just came out wrong and it wasn\u2019t meant quite the way it sounded. Someone asked how it felt for Gale and Randy that there were so many people in the room who would like to take a piece of them with them going home. Gale and Randy both looked a bit uncomfortable at that and didn\u2019t quite know what to say. Then Gale started to joke about how it would be decided who would get which part and also said that he was quite fond of all his parts so he wasn\u2019t sure if he wanted to part with them. But he did ask if there was a surgeon in the house. It was all quite weird.

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Then there was a question about how the felt working together. The both said that they had enjoyed it a lot and also added that they had a habit of starting to fuck with each other when things got boring in an attempt to make the other one crack up.

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After that panel I once more dashed to the photo room to get my photo taken with Peter and then it was time to make my way up to the M&G\/coffee room again since I had a coffee with Gale coming up. The coffee went mostly pretty well. There were some silences but nothing too bad. Gale kept looking out of the window and said we should go out to play basketball since there were courts outside.

I asked him about Rehab and if he knew if\/when it was coming out. He said that he honestly had no idea what was happening with it and that it was quite possible that none of it would ever see the light of day. I did comment that I had seen some clips of it and he seemed quite surprised by it. He asked me what had happened in those clips. It has been pretty long since I saw them so I couldn't really give him an answer but I did tell a few tidbits I did remember from the clip. He suspected that the clips hadn't actually been officially released but that someone who had access to them, had leaked them.

A while later I asked him if he was planning on visiting the Guggenheim while he was in town. He said that he was aware the others had gone there the previous day but he hadn't been able to join them. He talked something about being locked in his room or something like that. He then added that he might be going later and added that he was planning on going for a small trip for a few days the following day but maybe then going to the Guggenheim on Wednesday. We very friendly told him that he probably meant that he was on his trip on Monday since the following day he was still supposed to be at the convention. He laughed at that and asked if it was Saturday now.

After the coffee, I went back to the main hall to catch the end of Scott\u2019s panel. I had missed most of it but wanted to hear at least some of it.

Someone had asked him something about guns and he said he doesn\u2019t like them.

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He would be ready to do almost any role, as long as the script was good. He then amended that he probably wouldn\u2019t be up to do any torture or similar films.

He had a body double for the gang-rape scene on season three and he said it had been quite awkward meeting up with the guy who seemed to be a fan of the show. The guy had wanted to get his photo taken with Scott before doing the scene.

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Then someone asked him about his dog and he was quite pleased by that. He talked about her for a while and also revealed that his dog was gay but that he was fine with that.

That was the final panel of the day. I trecked back to my room to get all the stuff I wanted to get autographed. I had several items for Gale and Randy so I decided to get just some of them signed that day and the rest the next day.

As soon as the autographs started, I could have entered the room but I chose to stay behind and go with my friends when they were allowed in the room as well. They were sitting in the order of Peter, Scott, Randy and Gale. Got my autographs from Peter and Scott and told them both how nice it was seeing them again. I had bought A4 pictures of them both to get signed. For Randy I had this painted canvas of him and Gale together. For a while he wondered where he could sign and I just told him to sign in the front in the white space. He did and then commented that it looked like he was now the artist. For Gale I had the same canvas as well as a QAF poster I had gotten everyone else to sign in Cologne. He asked me what color I wanted him to sign with and I told him black since that\u2019s the color everyone else had signed with, with the exception of Harris who had signed in silver. Gale just commented that he would let Harris keep his special status and signed in black.

There was an amusing thing during the autographs when one member of our group told all the guests that they had to wish happy birthday to one member of our group. They all did it very nicely and then it was Gale\u2019s turn and he practically yelled the happy birthday at her and then turned to the rest of the group for approval. That shout had some heads turning.

Once the autographs were over, it was time to get ready for the evening\u2019s cocktail party. We got changed and then made our way back downstairs so that we could secure our group a good table. However, we were told that the cocktails were going to start a bit late so we went to the hotel bar to get drinks instead.

We were finally let into the cocktail room. I was among the first group due to VIP ticket and in the room found out that they had reserved a separate table for the VIP ticket holders with turned over chairs the guests were going to sit in. I contemplated for a while where to sit but then decided to sit at the VIP table even if I was called a traitor by my friends.

When the cocktails started the guests walked in and Scott came to sit beside me. Randy took a seat across the table and Gale and Peter were sitting a bit further away. While I was happy to have Scott next to me and Randy pretty close too, I did hope they would maybe change places at some point so that I would get a chance to interact with Peter and Gale as well.

In the beginning Scott went around the table and poured wine for everyone who wanted some. He\u2019s such a gentleman. There were also all kinds of food available and we carefully sampled the different dishes. There was an amusing moment when they brought in some sushi and Scott tasted that. His face was priceless at that point since I guess it tasted pretty bad for him. I\u2019m sure he would have spit it out if he hadn\u2019t been in public. Despite his reaction I dared to sample the other kind of sushi they had available. Scott actually leaned away from me when I ate it.

Can\u2019t remember everything that was talked while the guests were at that table but I do remember having fun. However, then they were moving to other tables which I took to mean that we\u2019d had our moment with them. They went around the room and sat for a while in all the tables. At some point I started to think about joining my friends\u2019 table after all but I didn\u2019t dare to do it since I thought some people might have considered it rude. In hindsight, I should so have done it but can\u2019t be helped now. I just concentrated on talking with the other people at the table and following the goings on while the guests went around the other tables. it seemed fun was had by all. I do know that I myself drank too much of the wine. But it was a fun evening all in all. I do feel that VIP tickets got a bit slighted in the deal since we got all the guests at the same time while the other tables got them all separately. One more reason why I should have joined my friends\u2019 table. After the guests left the hall, we were still allowed to stay there for a while, talk among ourselves, drink and eat the food. However, at some point we were told that we had to leave so we moved to the hotel bar.

Got to bed way too late and had a feeling I was going to pay the price for all the fun I had the next morning.

<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551444.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","qaf us","randy harrison","queens of the road","bilbao","scott lowell","peter paige","gale harold"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551229.html","pubDate":"Fri, 04 Apr 2014 19:21:50 GMT","title":"QUEENS OF THE ROAD - part 1","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551229.html","description":"So here's the first official part of my report. This part of the report will be mostly text at the beginning with a picspam following in the end. It seems I concentrated more on talking with the guests than taking photos but there are already so many great photos around that I guess it doesn't matter. The pics are clickable for larger.

Standard disclaimer:<\/b> As always I'm happy to share my experiences but I do ask that you respect the hard work I've put in this and don't take any parts of the report or the photos and post them somewhere else. I'm fine with people linking on this report and even encourage it. Also if you want to make icons of any of my photos, that is fine too. All I ask it that you ask. :)

Second disclaimer:<\/b> All things stated here are my own opinions and don't represent the opinions of anyone else.

There's a story behind my copyright watermark but that story is still coming :)

Finally. I hope you enjoy!



Thursday 27.3.2014
My convention experience surprisingly started already on my way to Bilbao. I was originally supposed to fly to Bilbao through Munich at ass-crack of dawn but due to ground workers of Lufthansa going on strike, I was re-routed to fly through Paris instead. In the end that proved to be a good thing. I met another convention attendee at the airport and while we were queuing for the plane, I joked about how funny it would be if the guests happened to be on the same plane. At no point did I actually think that would be the case. I got seated on my seat and found another convention attendee sitting pretty close to me. We had seen each other in Cologne. After we had gotten into air, she asked me if I thought a guy wearing a cap in business class could be Gale. I could only see the hat so I really couldn't be sure. This person solved the issue by getting up and walking to business class to see if it was him. I could see her leaning down and talking with someone, so that pretty much told me that it was him and she confirmed it when she came back. She told me that it was Gale and Scott sitting there but she also said, I think, that Peter wasn't there. I do have to say that I don\u2019t think it was quite alright for her to walk there and do that. It\u2019s not something I would have done. At that point I moved to sit next to the girl I had met on the airport since there was a free seat next to her and spent the rest of the flight there. Her seat was closer to the front of the plane so I caught the occasional glimpse of Gale and Scott and at some point noticed that Peter was sitting close to them after all.

When we landed we made our way out of the plane with my friend among the flow of people and ended up standing about 10-15 meters away from Scott, Peter and Gale. We were talking among each other but I do admit to sneaking a few glances at them. The embarrassing thing was that while I was talking with my friend, I sort of missed my luggage going by and had to take a few running steps to reach it. And of course this was into the direction where the guys were standing. As luck would have it, the bag next to my luggage belonged to Gale and I had to be careful not to pull my luggage on his legs when we were at the luggage belt at the same time. When we both (my friend and I) had our luggage, we made our way out of the airport and towards the taxi queue. We again caught a glimpse of the guys when they were packing their stuff to the car that was there to pick them up.

I had put out a tweet at the luggage hall about the guys being on the same plane and almost immediately that tweet started to go viral with people favoriting and retweeting it. Had to silence my phone so that the constant beeping wouldn't attract too much attention. And of course when we reached the convention hotel, there were some people in the reception I recognized and had seen the tweet so talked with some people there for a while. Was nice to see so many familiar faces again! Also met my dear roomie <\/a>blue_eyedstar<\/b><\/a><\/span>, Sandra, there. She had already gotten our room since she had gotten there earlier than me. Together we made our way to our room and got settled to wait for other people to arrive.

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Friday 28.3.2014

My friends and I had made plans to go to the Guggenheim museum in the morning, as had quite a few other people from the convention from the amount of familiar faces we saw there. We spent a nice few hours in the museum just browsing around and enjoying the art. I do have to say that modern art isn\u2019t for me. Sure the building was great and it was fun to actually be able to climb and go into some of the art but I just don\u2019t quite get what makes some of it art but that\u2019s of course just me. We were just about to leave the museum when someone spotted Randy, Scott and Peter queuing for tickets to the museum. I\u2019m sorry to say but at the first loud \u201cOMG! It\u2019s Randy!\u201d shout, we decided that it was maybe a good time to vacate the museum. Of course we had been on our way out anyway. I did come across Peter and Scott on our way out and they gave me a nod, smile and a quick hi but that was it. Don\u2019t know if they recognized me from the airport or just guessed what I was in town for :)

And then fast-forward to a few hours later...

It was finally time to get the convention started for real. The first thing was registration for the people who were taking part in the Close Up activity that afternoon. I was surprised to see how many people were queuing for registration but just thought that maybe some people had missed the part of it being just for the people taking part in the Close Up or were maybe just hanging out there in wait for the registration to be open to everyone.

Looking through the program I received with my tickets, I noticed that they had moved one of the M&Gs a bit. Originally Scott\u2019s M&G on the Sunday was going to overlap with Gale\u2019s panel pretty badly. I sent the organizers email about maybe moving that M&G a little since there seemed to be space but never heard back. However, don\u2019t know if they had considered my feedback or had come to the decision themselves, they had moved the M&G just in the way I had suggested. That made me happy since it meant I wouldn't have to miss that much of the panel.

It was some time later when I found out why there were so many people at registration. It was because they were actually all taking part in the Close Up. There was a bus for us outside the hotel and that bus was practically filled with people which basically meant that they had sold about 50 tickets for the Close Up. At that point I got a bad feeling about the whole thing since I don\u2019t really think 50 people taking part in something quite goes with the description of getting to spend time with the guests in an intimate setting or whatever the description of the activity said. The Close Up was in no means a cheap activity so I sort of expected it to be a bit more exclusive thing. I guess it\u2019s no surprise that the organizer refused to answer my question about how many tickets there were available.

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My dear friends Sandra and Kimmah in the bus

When we got to the pier where the boat we were supposed to be sailing with, was on, we were told to wait by the gates for a while. I have a feeling that Scott and Randy were already there at that point but I could well be wrong. People started to take photos of them right away when they stood there with the organizers. I admit to sneaking a few photos myself too. Also saw Elke, the organizer of the Rise \u2018n Shine conventions, walking up to them and talking with them. Now, this is of course just my opinion, but I don\u2019t think it was okay for her to do that. Sure she has organized a few conventions with them but at that convention she was in just as an attendee and had paid the same amount (I assume) as everyone else for the Close Up. I do feel that the same rules should have applied to her than to other attendees.

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And then on the pier waiting for the boat

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Anyway, after quite a wait, Peter and Gale also showed up and we were directed to enter the boat. It was unclear where the guests were going to be but since it was pretty cool outside my friends, Sandra and Kimah, and I decided to stay in the lower floor which was inside and much warmer than the outside air. Also that space had the food and drinks in it. We were among the first people inside the boat so got to choose our seats pretty freely. The guests were brought into the boat last and were taken to the upper deck. That of course meant that most of the people who were on the lower deck, tried to go to the upper deck instead. There was of course no room for everyone so they told us that about half-way they would switch so that the people who were there now would come down and we could go up. So I just sat with my friends and talked about random things while enjoying some wine, bread and cheese. Scott and Peter came down separately at some points to get themselves some drinks and food and did exchange a few words with people but then went back up. When time just went on I started to get worried that we would miss out the guests completely and that definitely didn't improve my mood.

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However, after time that felt like eternity we were told that it was time to swap. We climbed on the upper deck. We saw the guests sitting at the chairs across from the stairs. I got my customary \u201cHello, Pia\u201d from Randy and said hi back. At first took seats a few rows from where the guests were sitting but then I decided that I had paid good money for having the chance to talk with them so I got up and walked to where they were sitting. I first engaged Scott by talking to him about the Guggenheim museum and asked his opinion about it. It seemed he had experienced it a bit differently than I had but we did discuss it a while. Then I posed pretty much the same question to Randy and talked with him for a while. He continued our discussion by asking how my trip in had gone. Didn't want to bore him with details about how difficult making the trip had actually been due to the flight cancellations, so just went with saying that it had been good and that I had actually flown in the same plane with the others from Paris. At the same time I apologized for Scott for being the person who was the first one tweeting that they had been spotted on the airport.

While I was there I also told Randy that I had tried to come up with some good questions for the panels. Joked at that point that I didn't want him to be worried about me again since the last time we saw each other, he had said to me that I was being too quiet and asked if I was alright. I promised to do better this time around. He joked back something about me asking questions and somehow it got turned around so that he was saying that I was always so very quiet and how it seemed I didn't engage at all and seemed almost uninterested. Yeah, that describes my behavior at convention really well! NOT!

After I felt I had taken my time with them, I moved away and took a seat again. A while later I saw Peter standing near one of the railings by himself so went to talk with him about the Guggenheim as well. We both agreed that the best part was the stuff you could go into and climb on. I told him that we had climbed into this net thing they had there and had spent quite a lot of time there. And also admitted to him that we had taken photos up there even if you weren't supposed to. He gave me this conspiring smile and stage whispered that they had too. Spent some more time talking to him before leaving him in peace.

A while later I found myself sitting close to Randy again. Don\u2019t remember what we began talking about but I do remember that he brought up the video we had made in London with Sandra crawling down some stairs singing Wreckingball by Miley Cyrus. Probably sounds weird if you weren't there, but it was hilarious and there\u2019s a theme going in that and it\u2019s sort of a joke in our group. Randy did ask her if she already had another song in mind and she replied that she was taking requests. Next Randy suggested that there were perfectly good stairs on the boat as well and that Sandra could do a repeat performance right there and then. It is possible Sandra swatted him at that point.

Randy was also sweet enough to ask after some of the other people in our group since he hadn't seen them on the boat. We had to tell him that they weren't there and he made us promise to tell them that they were missed. He\u2019s so sweet!

Noticed that while the other guys were moving around and occasionally going to get some food and drinks, Gale sat in the same seat the whole time. At one point the seat in front of him was free so I sat there. Since he seemed deep in conversation with the people around him, I just concentrated on talking with my friends while waiting to see if there was a lull in the conversation. To me it looked like he might have been feeling slightly ill from the rocking the boat did but I could well be wrong. However, when I got a chance to speak to him, I did ask him if he was alright. He did very quickly reply that he was fine and then asked if I was alright. I told him that I was fine and then continued with saying that I was glad to see him again and mentioned that I had gone to LA to see Orpheus Descending and really enjoyed that and was curious to know if he was planning on doing any more theater. He did say that he would love to at some point and if possible in London. Someone else commented there that didn't he do something in London already and he said it had only been a workshop. There were a few more words exchanged but then someone on his other side started to talk with him and he turned away so I turned back to my friends and continued talking with them.

\"P1000220\"<\/a>
Again my friends and some guy in the background :)

\"IMG_6591\"<\/a>
Photo credit <\/a>oceanreign<\/b><\/a><\/span>

The whole theme of the cruise for me was having random encounters with the guests but pretty much always just exchanging a few words with them before moving away since I didn't want to appear to crowd them. At some point of the cruise I decided that my dress choice had been a pretty bad one. While the dress looked good, it wasn\u2019t the warmest choice to be standing on the deck and also the constant wind there posed the danger of my skirt flying up. Really didn't fancy the idea of flashing my knickers at everyone. I did complain to the guests about my skirt too :)

\"IMG_6604\"<\/a>
A fine picture of me holding my skirt...
Photo credit <\/a>oceanreign<\/b><\/a><\/span>

Don\u2019t have too clear recollections of all the encounters I had but I do remember standing close to Peter and Randy and just taking photos of the scenery when I spotted a ship sporting the name of a Finnish company. I pointed it out to them and they asked me what the company did. Had to search for the words for a while but then got out that they dealt with paper and pulp. Randy immediately commented that his father used to work in that industry and had actually visited Helsinki quite a few times for work. Peter asked him if he had ever gone with his father but Randy said he hadn't. He did add that he would love to visit Helsinki one day. I jokingly commented that I keep inviting him but he never comes. Got a laugh for that.

Before heading out for the cruise, Sandra and I had joked with some friends of ours that they were going to hire a row boat and row after us. So when we saw a bunch of rowing boats, we got a good laugh out of that and joked that it was them coming now.

Then there was an encounter between Scott and Peter when Scott came from the lower deck holding some bread and cheese in his hands. Peter yelled at him asking where his cheese was. Scott was all confused looking and asking if he had been meant to bring Peter some and Peter just acted all insulted by it. Scott then asked Peter if he wanted him to go and get him some and Peter still acted insulted. Scott slumped and shuffled back downstairs to get some cheese for him. So very amusing!

At one point I happened to be standing close to Peter and Scott when they started talking about some building they were jokingly planning on buying. It seemed they had really put some thought into it. They had already divided the place up according to who was going to get which floor. They pointed out the building and I had to comment that it might require some work before they could move in. They shrugged and said that maybe it needed a few new windows or something.

We also got some our own amusement when it looked like every time Sandra came to the upper deck, Randy went downstairs and vice versa. He did keep saying that he was cold so I think it was more that and not him avoiding Sandra but we found it amusing anyway.

We were already approaching familiar surroundings when we were told that we had to go down again and that the first group got to come back up for a while still. I was sort of glad to be able to go back down to the warmth even if I was sad to leave the guys. Scott saw us making our way down and asked us if we had given up to the cold. I told him that we had been told to leave to give space to other people. He went all \u201cWell, get going then!\u201d and shooed us out of there. Of course he was just joking.

We sat downstairs for the rest of the trip. Randy seemed to have given up to the cold as well and was spending most of the time downstairs. He had a group of people sitting around him so I decided not to bother him anymore. Spent the time before we docked taking some more scenery photos as well as talking with my friends.

When we docked, the guests were escorted out of the boat first. Some people tried to run after them but they were gotten into a car pretty quickly, I was told. It also appeared that some people might have told others where the boat was going to dock since it seemed there were people waiting on the dock to catch a glimpse of them.

Now it's time for that picspam


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As in conclusion about the Close Up, it was okay, but it wasn't quite worth the money I paid for it. In my opinion they had sold too many tickets for it for the amount they charged. This is again of course just my opinion and other people might feel differently. That being said, I had fun but I guess did expect too much. I blame some other events I've attended. They've raised my expectations :)

We made our way back to the hotel in the bus and I sort of thought that the evening was over for me, what it came to the guests. I was proven wrong some hours later. Sandra had gotten herself a dinner with Randy. Everyone else in our group was sitting in the hotel bar having some drinks and food. Suddenly I started to get text messages from Sandra which all were quite negative about the dinner. It seemed that different to what had been said when the dinners were sold, there were actually seventeen seats at every table. The dinner was originally advertised as there being 12 seats. Also the tables were long ones so the people sitting at the other end of the table from the guest couldn't really hear anything that was being said. I did feel bad for Sandra since she had paid good money for the dinner too but not enough to get a seat close to Randy.

Then in the middle of everything I got the weirdest text, still from her phone. It read \u201cits Randy. Didn't you have pink hair for a while?\u201d I stared at the text and tried to make sense of it. The text had nothing to do with anything I had been talking with Sandra about so I just pretty much felt WTF. I showed the text to my friends and their comment was that it\u2019s obviously Randy texting me. My next WTF moment was thinking why Randy thought I had had pink hair and also why the hell were they talking about me and my hair on the dinner. I replied in the negative to the text and the texting went back to Sandra telling me about the dinner which she began to enjoy a lot more once Randy moved around the table and started to talk with people other than the ones sitting closest to him.

I was just left with a confused feeling about the text. And also slightly amused. When Sandra got back from the dinner, I tried to question her about what had happened but she wasn't really able to explain to me what the whole hair thing had been about. But she did say that Randy had kept stealing her phone and reading through the texts between us. Nosy guy! :D

By that time it was already quite late and sleep was a good idea. We knew we would have a long day ahead of us the next day.


Saturday<\/a>
<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/551229.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","scott lowell","peter paige","randy harrison","traveling","queens of the road","gale harold"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/549534.html","pubDate":"Wed, 11 Sep 2013 16:28:56 GMT","title":"My New York adventure - part 2 ie the QWANcon","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/549534.html","description":"So here's the QWANvention part of my report. This time there are even photos, lots of them. What I said yesterday still goes. I'm more than happy to share my report and photos but please don't go stealing them. Tell me where you are putting them and give me credit. That's all I'm asking.

Now I hope you enjoy!



Sunday 1.9.2013
It was finally time for QWANvention. I wasn\u2019t actually part of the organizing crew but pretty much knew them all so I arrived to Dixon Place already slightly earlier than what the event started. Helped out with some general set up before being banished back upstairs to wait. Did see all the members of QWAN arrive. Jenn Harris was the first one to arrive and since I was standing with the people who were in charge of organizing the event, got to meet her as well already then.

Passed the time waiting for the event part to start by hanging out and talking with some people I knew. <\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span>, <\/a>rockie2010<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>toto_too514<\/b><\/a><\/span> were all there. Saw some of the presents they had gotten and felt that my own simple gifts were pretty boring *g*. Also met some new people. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

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Then it was time for the event to actually start. We were taken into the theater part and welcomed to the event. Then the members of QWAN arrived to a thunderous applause. First part of the event was dubbed as autographs and Meet&Greet but it pretty much morphed into a general hanging out and people talking with the guests while also taking pics of them and with them. There were just 16 attendees so it was all very relaxed and fun. The QWAN members seemed to enjoy themselves too. They all got plenty of gifts too. Of course Randy\u2019s haul was the biggest and Jack who was sitting in the next table from him, tried several times \u201csteal\u201d some of Randy\u2019s gifts. He yelled at Christian and Philip who were sitting further away that he had gotten all these lovely gifts while showing them Randy\u2019s haul. Randy kept telling him to keep his hands off his gifts but it was all done in good humor.

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I do have to admit that I\u2019m not that familiar with any of the other people in QWAN besides Randy. I\u2019ve seen Philip in \u201cThe Outs\u201d and all the others in \u201cGayby\u201d but it was truly a pleasure to meet them all. The first one was Jack Ferver. I do have to say that he totally won my heart. He was such a funny guy and totally took care of the speaking when I struggled to get words out of my mouth. I did ask him what he thought about the whole event and he assured me that they were all very excited about it. I told him that I was from Finland and he asked me if I had flown in just for the event. I told him that I was there with a bunch of friends for a vacation originally but the timing fit perfectly. I got him to sign a 10x8 of him as well as the Gayby DVD cover. When I handed him the 10x8, I also gave him a post-it note with my name on it and asked him to personalize it for me. He was all in for it but then he said that he hadn\u2019t done it for anyone else and wondered if he should have. I just commented something about it being people\u2019s own fault if they didn\u2019t ask for it. *g* I did find him really easy to talk to. Only after I had moved forward, I realized that I had forgotten to ask for a photo with him. I hoped I\u2019d be able to return to do that later.

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Next it was Randy\u2019s turn. He greeted me and asked if my jetlag was already better. I told him that I had gotten a few nights of good rest so it was all good now. How nice of him to ask that. I had him to sign a 10x8 and the Gayby cover as well. Then I got an extra 10x8 for <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>

Final comment: The whole event was so great. Everything ran smoothly and people seemed to enjoy themselves. My heartfelt thanks to Sarah and Milo, the organizers, as well as all the people who helped out with the event, in one way or another.","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/549534.html?view=comments#comments","category":["qwancon","randy harrison"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/549128.html","pubDate":"Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:03:19 GMT","title":"My New York adventure - part 1","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/549128.html","description":"I'm back from my trip. It was an awesome trip and I'm so happy I had the chance to make it. I've done my best to write a report of all the things Randy that happened there but couldn't quite manage to get it all together tonight. True to form, I wrote too much. Therefore, I decided to cut the report into two parts. This first part has the parts when I went to see him in Harbor and the second part, which I'll hopefully finish tomorrow, will have the QWANcon parts.

As always with my reports, I'm happy to share my experiences and photos but I ask you not to spread them around without my knowledge or credit. Okay, in this first part there really aren't that many photos, but anyway :) So in short, feel free to share my report but please tell me about it so that I know. Thank you!

I hope you enjoy!



Friday 30.8.2013
So I arrived to NYC on Friday. My plane was supposed to land a bit before four and we had theater tickets for Harbor that night at 8pm. I though four hours would be plenty of time to get to the apartment we had rented and then making my way to the theater. Just shows once more that I\u2019m from a small country where things go smoothly and distances aren\u2019t that big. Of course there was also some unlucky incidents on my way, like the fact that while we landed on time, we had to wait over 30 minutes before we got to the gate because some other plane was late and then it took 20 minutes for the subway to arrive that took me to the apartment. Long story short, I got to the theater about 5 minutes before the show started. All my friends had already gone in and had left my ticket to the box-office. Took me about four minutes to get them to find the ticket for me. And then they first tried to send me to the wrong theater. Slipped in pretty much right when they were already closing the door. Still, I made it! *g*

I\u2019m sure everyone has already read reports about the play and knows the basics of what happens in it, so won\u2019t go much into it. I\u2019ll just go with saying that I really enjoyed the play and I think the whole cast did a very good job. The audience was very much going with the play and there was a lot of laughter and clapping in the right places. I actually saw a comment from Randy saying that that that evening\u2019s audience had been \"the best audience ever\". The other members of the cast also tweeted about that after the play.

Randy\u2019s character was so very cute in some parts of the play. I think one of my favorite scenes was when Kevin demonstrates who easily he gets distracted from things. He\u2019s supposed to be working on a pamphlet about Sag Harbor but suddenly starts asking his partner if they can have a dog. And when he\u2019s told no, he just asks if they could get a small one. And when that gets a no as well, he asks for a picture of a dog. So very cute! There were some other cute moments as well. There was of course the moment when Kevin places a tiara with pink decorations on his head while announcing that he\u2019s not the woman. And I can\u2019t say that I didn\u2019t enjoy the scene where Randy is on stage wearing just boxers. *g* All in all, I did enjoy the play a lot, even if there were moments when parts of the dialogue went past me. And there was also a term used that I totally forgot to have someone explain to me but I guess it\u2019s too late now. Anyway, if someone wants to explain to me, what\u2019s a \"parking lot item\", it would be great.

During intermission got to say hello to everyone properly. There were even people I wasn\u2019t aware that were going to be there. Still, it was great to see everyone again.

After the play we remained behind to wait for the cast to come out to get them to sign our playbills. There were quite a lot of people waiting there that night. I was happy to hang out with <\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span> and finally getting to meet <\/a>rockie2010<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>toto_too514<\/b><\/a><\/span>. <\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span> I had met in LA while I was there to see Gale in Orpheus Descending as well as in Cologne last year. The others I only knew through talking to them on LJ but it was great to get to meet them face to face finally.

After a small wait all of the cast came out and I got them all sign my playbill. I won\u2019t deny that my highest priority was to get Randy to sign the playbill but I did want all the others to sign it as well. They came out one by one. I had heard already earlier that Randy had said that he was in a hurry that evening since he had an early wake up the next morning but that he would definitely come and say hi to us. When he did come out he first said hi to a few other people. When it was my turn I got my customary \"Hi, Pia!\" I said hi to him and we exchanged some polite chatter. He did ask me how I was and I admitted to him that I was slightly tired and feeling jetlagged. He asked me if I had just flown in that day and I said yes. There really wasn\u2019t much time to talk much since it was obvious that he was in a hurry. He signed everyone\u2019s playbills that were there and then said that he was going to see us all on Sunday before heading out of the door.

We hung out outside the theater a while longer so that the rest of the cast made it out as well. Erin Cummings stayed talking with us for a while and asked us some questions. She was surprised to hear that there were so many different nationalities (US, UK, France, Finland) in our small group. She told us that she had studied in the UK, gone to vacation in Paris and did a press tour in Finland, so she managed to find a connection to us all. She was very nice to talk to.

When we started to make our way away from the theater, some people started to talk about coming to see Harbor again the following day for the matinee showing. I found out that there was one person in our group who could get the tickets for $20 so I decided that it was definitely worth that sacrifice to get to see the play again. Sure, I knew that I already had tickets for the following week but it\u2019s nice to go see plays in a group too. So plans for the following day were made.

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Saturday 31.8.2013
So the next day we were there for the matinee. It was nice seeing the play again since it was then possible to pay attention to different things than on the first viewing. However, I do have to say that there wasn\u2019t the same amount of energy in the performance than there had been the previous evening. The audience was more subdued as well. Still it was fun.

After the play we again stayed behind to say hi to Randy. A few of our group hadn\u2019t gotten him to sign their playbills the previous night so that was taken care of. It was again a pretty short meet-up. He was aware that some of us were going to see Michael Urie (his castmate from Such Good People) that evening and he told us to say hi to him from him. Finally he again told us that he was going to see us the next day.

So that night we did indeed go see Michael Urie do his one man play. It was just hilarious. If anyone is in town and hasn\u2019t seen it yet, they should definitely go see it. It was pretty much 90 minutes of pure laughter. He was just amazing.

After the play, we stayed to wait for him to come out. At first we were a bit unsure where we should wait so that we didn\u2019t miss him. We first stood in the foyer but then moved to stand outside. Time went on and it was obvious they were starting to close to place down but there still had been no sign of Michael. There were some other people who looked like they were waiting as well. Finally I went inside to ask if Michael had possibly left already since we had hoped to see him. I was told that he hadn\u2019t left and the guy told me that he was going to go down and tell him that there were people waiting for him. He did do that and came back saying that it was going to be just a few more minutes. So we waited. And waited. And waited.

In the end it took him about 30 minutes from the moment the play ended before he came out. Some of our group were already prepared to give up and head out. Still I\u2019m so glad that we waited since it was so worth it. He was incredibly nice and seemed pleased that we had waited. We got him to sign our playbills and also took photos with him. We complimented him about the play. He was also surprised to hear that we had traveled so far. He did ask if \"Ugly Betty\" had been a big hit in our countries and we did tell him that it had. We also talked about SGP a bit.

Then it was time for the amusing part of the evening. One of us told him that we had been to see Randy earlier that day and that he had told us to say hi. Michael was all \"Randy who?\" Obviously when we told him who Randy was in question he was again with us and he asked our opinions about Harbor. He had also liked the play quite a lot. Then we asked him if he was possibly coming to see QWAN the next day and again he was all \"Huh?\" We once more had to clarify to him what we were talking about before he got a clue. Very funny. He did tell us that he would have loved to attend as well but unfortunately he had his own show to do in the evening so he couldn\u2019t make it. He did seem to be sorry about that fact. It did seem that he would have very much liked to see it as well.

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Friday 6.9.2013
I had bought a ticket to see Harbor on this day as well since I had suspected that I might be too tired to enjoy the show on the day when I arrived. Didn\u2019t know then that I was going to see it twice with my friends so this time made it three times together. This time I had a seat on the other side of the theater from the other times which made an interesting change. Once more enjoyed the play a lot and after having a friend tell me what the one line I kept missing was, managed to catch that one this time as well. I did notice an interesting thing that pretty much all through the play Randy\u2019s character Kevin wears these \u201cgrown-up\u201d clothes but in the last scene he has much more relaxed clothes on and to me it felt that also amplified the message that he had been living his life the way Ted wanted but now he was striking out on his own and also having his own style. Another thing I noticed now that I was sitting on the other side of the theater and closer to the stage, was that the tattoo Randy has on his shoulder, had been covered with some make up but not too effectively. If you looked closely you could see it shine through. It was also interesting to notice that in the scene where he\u2019s only in his boxers and aplies moisturizer on his skin, he carefully avoids the shoulder that has the tattoo on it.

Stayed behind after the show in hopes of getting to talk to all the cast members once more. It seemed Paul and Alexis had a lot of friends waiting for them at the theater so they just quickly signed my playbill before moving on. Randy came out and said hi to me. It might have been just my imagination but it\u2019s possible he gave me this a bit weird glance and was possibly wondering what I was doing there since he was aware that all the others had gone home the previous day. He did ask me when I was going home and I told him that I was flying home on Sunday. I handed him a playbill to sign and he asked me if he had already signed but then saw that he hadn\u2019t. That\u2019s maybe because it was a different playbill from the first one I got him to sign the week before. While he was signing I asked him if he was looking forward to the vacation he has starting after Harbor ends. His reply was pretty much \"I'm so very ready for the vacation to start\". He did seem to be in a hurry again so he said his byes and hurried out of the door. Still waited around to see Erin since I wanted to compliment her performance. She did come out finally and got a chance to talk with her for a while. She remembered seeing me there the previous week as well. Then it was time for my Harbor experience to end.

In short, I really did enjoy the play and I'm glad I got the chance to finally see Randy on stage. The other cast were really great too.

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<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/549128.html?view=comments#comments","category":"randy harrison"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/533435.html","pubDate":"Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:37:40 GMT","title":"Rise 'n Shine report - Part 3","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/533435.html","description":"And here's the final part of my report. Couldn't post yesterday because I spent the whole day at my sister's house. It was her birthday yesterday so we had a small celebration. And also just enjoyed the company of my lovely niece once more.

Saturday<\/a>

Anyway, below the cut the Sunday part of the convention. Again some pictures included there.

PLEASE, do not take my photos and post them elsewhere before asking me first!!!<\/b>



This time slept right until my alarm went off but that was no miracle since I only got to sleep a bit over four hours. Normal for conventions, though. Again got ready and made my way to the convention hotel. Just hung around and waited for something to happen. While I was wandering around I saw Elke and went to ask her what had happened to Loft ticket queue priority with the photos. She said that with the schedule being late, they hadn\u2019t had time for that. Couldn\u2019t really understand that logic since it wouldn\u2019t have taken any extra time to let Loft tickets go first. However, didn\u2019t say anything. She did say that some people had stayed until ten o\u2019clock to get all the photos sorted. I told her I was very aware of that since I had been there until 9.50pm. She seemed surprised by those news. She promised me that if they developed more than one photo of me with the guests, I would get the other one for free. Otherwise you had to pay for them. Was happy about that.

Moved to stand close to the doors to get a good seat from the hall since I wasn\u2019t entirely sure what was happening. I did know they were still taking some photos that morning since they hadn\u2019t gotten through everyone the previous day. I had a photo with Scott and Peter as well as with the whole cast. Once more we were first let in from the first doors to queue up at the second door. There we were given some instructions. Too bad the girl who was giving them was talking pretty quietly and I\u2019m sure everyone didn\u2019t hear her. People started shouting the messages along the queue. While this was going on, the guests walked by us and waved. Sharon gave this royal like wave and got a cheer for it. Then we were let into the hall with a military like efficiency. People with a photo with Sharon and Randy were told to queue up at the left side of the hall and everyone else was told to go sit on the right side of the hall. If you didn\u2019t have a photo that you were waiting to take, you weren\u2019t supposed to be in the hall at all. All the photos were taken on the stage.

For the whole duration of the photos being taken instructions were given in three languages from the stage. You were supposed to move efficiently, not talk with the guests, not ask for any poses and not take photos of your own. Was slightly annoyed about the no poses rule since I had this very nice pose planned for Scott and Peter with me sandwiched between them. Didn\u2019t happen. We were given clear instructions where to place our feet and all. I understand why they had to do it like that but it still felt quite ridiculous. I\u2019m pretty sure the guests got on Elke\u2019s nerves because they just kept goofing around when they were changed from one pairing to another one. And of course people cheered even if they had been told to be quiet. You can\u2019t stop something like that.

Finally the guests were assembled for the group photo. Everyone was told to queue and then we were practically run through the photo. There was a chair in the middle of the guests and you were supposed to walk briskly there, pose for the photo and then go away. The guests actually chuckled a few times when people tried to scramble in and out of the photo as fast as they could. We were hurried along all the time. Part of me found it all quite amusing but there was also the annoyed part.

After the group photo was done, I remained in the hall a while longer to just watch the guests. Noticed that the no photos and definitely no video rule wasn\u2019t entirely clear to people since saw quite a few people taking photos and even video around the hall. Of course not my problem but my inner \"steward\" wanted to tell them they were breaking the rules. Did actually say to a few people that you weren\u2019t supposed to take photos. Got dirty looks in return.

Left the hall after a while since I wasn\u2019t supposed to be there anymore since all my photos were taken care of. Then I just wandered around. I saw that they had started to give out the photos. Joined the queue but very quickly noticed that there was no way I was going to get through the queue before the Meet and Greets started so gave up. In the end I just went to stand next to the sign that had my first M&G group written on it and waited. After a while a staff member came to us, got our badge numbers and finally lead us to the area where the M&G was held.

My first M&G was with Peter and Scott. On purpose I situated myself so that I was sure to get the front and middle seat. I don\u2019t think I pushed anyone aside or anything. *g* The M&Gs were arranged so that the guests were sitting on chairs in front and there were two rows of chairs in front of them. Sort of forgot to take notes again in the beginning so my memories are a bit vague. However, the following subjects were discussed.

The ending. They were asked how long in advance they knew what was going to happen in the end. They said that not much. They only got the scripts a few weeks before filming started. They had known that the last season would be a bit shorter since every season was slightly shorter than the previous one. They were happy with the ending and didn\u2019t share the view some people had about the ending being rushed. Scott was asked if he knew that Ted was going to end up with Blake and he said he hadn\u2019t known until he read it in the script. It did get mentioned that it was weird that Brian was practically the only one who ended up alone in the end and some people felt like the growth he had gone through during the five years was just wiped out. Scott and Peter seemed surprised that people saw it that way.

I got to ask Scott if the friendship between him and Gale had had an effect on the relationship between Ted and Brian. In the beginning Ted was the person Brian always made fun of but on seasons four and five, they got a lot closer. And Ted was the first person Brian told about his cancer. Didn\u2019t really get a clear answer to the question. Scott did talk about how Ted and Brian made an unlikely pair as friends and maybe that\u2019s why it worked. On the first season when Michael wasn\u2019t talking to Brian, he called Ted and asked him to hang out. Ted benefited from that since he got all Brian\u2019s rejects and he probably got laid more during that period of time than in any other point in the series.

That sort of started a discussion about the dynamics in the group. Peter saw that Emmett had Brian\u2019s respect since he was on his own way unapologetic as well and had the courage to be who he was. Peter continued to go on about how he saw that Brian, Melanie and Emmett had formed the Alpha triangle of the group. They were all out and proud. None of them hid what and who they were. Found this a really interesting point of view.

The time went way too fast and soon it was already time for us to go. We said our thanks and walked out. I returned to our starting point to see where I needed to be next. I had a M&G with Sharon and Randy next. Was slightly nervous about that and hoped that I would get to ask some of my questions since I had quite a few of them. It came out that I really did get a chance to ask questions because almost no one else was asking anything. It was really weird. It was basically <\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span>, <\/a>galeandrandy<\/b><\/a><\/span> and me who asked questions and every one else sat quietly. There might have been one question from someone else. I think Sharon and Randy were quite surprised by it. Don\u2019t know if people just didn\u2019t have the courage to ask questions or if they really had nothing to ask.

Anyway to the M&G. Once more I got a seat in front and center which I was happy about. There was first a question about them going through the work in their head once they\u2019ve finished with it. Sharon said that she always does her best acting work in the car on her way back home. Randy said that the good side of stage work is that you can always correct yourself the following night. Of course what you thought would work, might not always work after all.

Randy was asked about how much advance he usually gets his scripts. He said it\u2019s usually about 1\u00bd weeks before hand and it doesn\u2019t take him long to learn his lines. The only exception had been Waiting for Godot where he had a five page monologue that didn\u2019t really make any sense. Or in a way it did but still. He was asked if he still remembered anything from the monologue. He started reciting it really fast. Okay, he probably only did a few paragraphs but since the text was pretty much gibberish, I was impressed he remembered it all and so was everyone else.

Since we were talking about Randy\u2019s stage work I asked him about doing a lot of Beckett\u2019s work. His first response was, \"I haven\u2019t done much Beckett\" but then he thought about it and said \"Oh, yes I have.\" Got a laugh out of us. Poor guy can\u2019t even remember what all he has done. I asked him if he agreed with the thought that there was no middleground with his work but you either loved it or hated it. He had to think about it for a while and then said he couldn\u2019t really answer for other people but he personally loved it.

Sharon was asked about the play she did in London last year. She said that disrobing on stage had been the hardest part of that role. She also said that since she\u2019s 69 years old she also has a 69 year old body and revealing all that had been difficult. Then she told us that there had been some guy sitting in several performances with a pair of binoculars which he always put on his eyes when the play started with the scene of Sharon disrobing on stage and \u201cdoing herself\u201d as she expressed it.

There was some talk about auditioning. Randy said that he still has to audition for all parts and that\u2019s the part he hates. He said that his own head is his worst enemy and sometimes he seems to lose his confidence in auditions. Sharon doesn\u2019t have to audition anymore. She actually said that if she does audition for some part, she usually doesn\u2019t get it.

That sort of lead to them being asked about being willing to do QaF again since apparently they had been asked this at the press conference as well and they had all said yes. They both still said that but also said that the script would have to be good. A little self-depreciately Randy then said that he would probably have to audition for the role of Justin as well which got him a \u201caww\u201d reaction from us. They talked for a while about how the show would then have to be in real time and not pick up from where they left of since it\u2019s been seven years and they have all gotten older. They also expressed the fear that if whatever they did wouldn\u2019t be what fans wanted it to be, it wouldn\u2019t go anywhere. They seemed to think it was a risky idea.

Asked Randy about (tAB) and if there was anything happening with it. Did mention that they had screened Thinking in Paris and I had quite liked it. He remembered that but said that unfortunately they are too busy at the moment so they are dismantling the whole thing. Randy has his work and his partner (I guess that\u2019s Marci Adilman) is going through graduate school.

There was some talk about him doing Red and I asked him if he had already gotten all the red paint out of his hair. That earned me a smile, laugh and a \"yes\".

At that point things started to get awkward when no one else was really asking anything besides the three of us. It didn\u2019t go unnoticed by Randy and Sharon since it definitely wasn\u2019t like we weren\u2019t giving anyone else a turn. After every question there was a few seconds silence which was then filled with one of us.

<\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span> asked Randy about the bright green socks he was wearing. He said he likes all kinds of bright socks. Some weird thing made me ask him if he was aware of a store called Little Mismatched where you could buy all kinds of funny socks. He hadn\u2019t heard about it and he said he had quite enough socks for now.

Finally asked him if he had any future projects he could tell us about. His very short response was a \"no\" and that he was going back home to audition. Also asked him if he was going to Berkshire this year and got a \"no\" to that as well.

The M&G was ended by these two girls handing out books to Sharon and Randy that contained all kinds of letters and stories from the fans. They seemed quite surprised by them and immediately leafed through them a little. Did catch a glimpse of my letter to Randy in the book.

On our way back upstairs we were talking about how weird it had been that no one had any questions. I got to ask most of the questions I had prepared. One final question did pop into my mind just before the end but didn\u2019t get a chance to ask it. And I had been asking quite enough questions anyway *g*

Next we went to a M&G with Robert, Hal and Harris. Again my memory (and notes) fail me a little but there was a lot of discussion about different subjects. This time around people were at least asking questions. Someone did refer to the question I had asked the previous day about Harris and Robert joining the series later than the others in the established cast. They pretty much repeated what they had said on stage about the subject, but Robert also mentioned that he had known Peter from before and somehow that also made things easier. He said that they had flown him in to meet everyone but at that point he still didn\u2019t know if he had the part. He did say something about having to meet the most important person to see if their chemistry matched. He of course meant Hal with this and gave him a small smile there. Hal continued on the subject by saying that he had felt an instant connection with Robert. According to him the first season had been very difficult for him professionally because of a clashing chemistry between him and a co-star. I\u2019m sure everyone thought about Chris Potter at that point but then he also talked something about the Brian\/Michael relationship which made me wonder if he was referring to Gale after all. I do hope he wasn\u2019t.

Robert talked about the \"candle vigil\" scene where Ben attacked that protester. He said it had been a very cold night and it had actually taken so long to get the scene done that he had gone to a small shock after the scene and had been forced to seek some medical help afterwards. This lead to a discussion about what were the most difficult scenes to make. Hal mentioned that sometimes they needed to film Spring\/Summer scenes in the Winter which meant that they were outside in quite light clothes and also had to chew on ice cubes so that their breath wouldn\u2019t show on film. Randy mentioned the same thing in Paris 1\u00bd years ago.

Harris was asked if he thought Hunter was gay or straight. He didn\u2019t really have an answer to that. He hadn\u2019t given it much thought.

They also talked about the hospital and filming different scenes there. It seems that half of the hospital was still in use while they used the other half for filming. Hal talked about doing the scenes after the bombing and how he had intentionally stayed totally unmoving during the whole set-up and filming of those scenes. He had even slowed his heart beat somewhat. Then he talked something about the filming being so stressful at times that he needed to go through long acupuncture treatments between the seasons to get all the tension out of his body.

Robert has had some hard time dating since people think they are dating Ben and when he doesn\u2019t behave the same way as they\u2019d expect Ben to do, they are disappointed.

Hal had a theory about Michael\u2019s reluctance about being out and proud gay. He thinks that Michael did try to come out of the closet in College (I guess this was during his one term in Community College *g*) but got gay bashed in some way and that made him hesitant about doing it publicly again.

That\u2019s about all I can remember. We again made our way back upstairs to group in front of another meeting point for the final M&G. When we walked into the room where Michelle and Thea were already waiting for us, I noticed that they were sitting pretty far from each other. Once more my mouth overrode my brain and I asked why they were sitting so far away from each other. They just claimed that it was just how the seats had been placed but they did move closer to each other. And I felt like blushing.

I asked them what they thought happened in Canada and if Mel and Linds would ever return back to the US. They seemed to start on the thought that it was quite possible they would not return since things in Canada are so much better for gay people than in the US. Still they did say that things are slowly changing in the US as well so it could be that they will come back one day. Michelle did say that he does love the US but she just hoped that progress would be faster. I did comment something about how it sometimes feels like things can go two steps forwards and then again one step backwards.

Michelle got politically active while she was doing the series. She still feels like she isn\u2019t doing enough. She got a bit emotional while talking about all the work she has done. She also sort of admitted that she has had experiences with women as well.

Thea talked about the relationship between Brian and Lindsay and how the triangle between Mel, Lindsay and Brian was the base in the series. She felt that Lindsay always felt oppressed and Brian had the means and ability to set her free.

I asked their thoughts about the \"Alfa-triangle\" Peter had talked about in their M&G. Michelle seemed quite surprised by the thought but in the end she said she loved the idea. She seem to ponder about it for a while.

After that M&G I didn\u2019t have anything planned for the whole afternoon. Those who had more expendable income, headed for City Walks with the guests. I had tried to win a ticket to those walks in raffle but had no luck. Told everyone that was heading to those walks that they needed to tell me everything that happened.

Since the queue for the photo pick up was pretty short, I joined that one. When it was my turn, they handed me a pile of photos and then told me that I needed to choose between the photos if there were more than one photo with a certain guests. I told them that Elke had promised me all the photos without extra charge but of course they didn\u2019t believe me. I quite understood why they didn\u2019t believe me but still did feel slightly frustrated to meet another obstacle. I tried to see someone around who could maybe help me. I did happen to see one of the guys who had seemed to be in charge of at least some of the things. Went to talk to him about the photos and he told me that he was going to sort me out in a minute. There was also talk about the lunch that was supposed to be included in my ticket. He promised to sort that out as well.

A while later I was directed into the restaurant which was different from the one where we had eaten the previous day. This time we were given menus that we could choose from. We were told that the tab would be picked up to 20 euros and whatever went over that, we needed to pay ourselves. I picked out a schnitzel and ordered a beer as well since I felt like I needed one. The beer was again just 0,2l which is really small. Almost drank it all before my food even arrived. Got another beer as well. The schnitzel was pretty huge and I knew there would be no way I could eat it all. At least I had good company from this Swedish girl who I had been talking with in the hall as well since we had sat side by side for some of the talks.

After the lunch was done I tried to find the guy again who had promised to help me with the photos. After some searching I managed to find him and he took me to the photo people to say to them that it was all settled and that I could have all my photos without extra charge. It was incredibly nice of him to do that. He was very nice to me otherwise too.

After the photos were sorted out, I decided to head out for a few more beers with the Swedish girl. We went to the close by patio and enjoyed us a few beers while enjoying the view of the Rhine. And the beer tasted really good.

We returned back to the hotel a while later to see what was happening. When the talks were supposed to start in the main hall we were told that there were still some photos that were going to be taken. The actors had agreed to 30 minutes more of photos. Again we were told that we weren\u2019t allowed to take photos of our own while the photo shoot was going on. Everyone who still had photos to be taken was told to queue at one side of the hall. Then they were run into the photos one by one to get the combination they wanted. The actors found the whole process really funny and again kept goofing on the stage. When Scott was told that he wasn\u2019t needed for the next photo shoot, he slumped and walked off the stage dejectedly. A bit later he was back on stage and Sharon was told she wasn\u2019t needed for the next photo and Scott pretended to kick him off the stage. A bit later Sharon and Hal were in the same photo and while they were waiting for some changes, they first hugged and then Sharon slapped Hal in a very Debbie like manner. Of course everyone again cheered.

\"Sharon
\"Sharon
\"Sharon,

After all the photos were taken the actors were allowed a small rest. Then it was the time for the final panel. In the original program there should have still been two panels but I guess they decided to skip one because of time constraints. All the actors were once again welcomed to the stage with huge cheers. The moderators said a few words about the weekend and then said that every actor would be in turn be asked one question by someone from the audience. Below what I remember from every question and answer:

\"All

Harris: He was asked what his plans were now. He said that he was going to concentrate on acting even if he would also continue to do his music.

Peter: He was asked about the difference between him and Emmett. His reply was that it was their fashion sense.

Scott: (my question) Are we going to see more of Dr. Fillmore (Bones). He said that he certainly hoped we would since he had really liked doing that role. He gave a little backstory about the character in case some people weren\u2019t aware of who it was and then added that with some spare feet being sent in the mail in Canada right now, there might well be need for Dr. Fillmore again.

\"Scott,

Hal: Who would he pick as his best friend out of the characters in the show? He thought about it for long and hard. He mentioned a few names but in the end went with Ted. Peter\u2019s comment to that was \"Why don\u2019t you just admit you don\u2019t like gay people.\" which in my opinion was a bit strange comment and I\u2019m not entirely sure what Peter meant with it, knowing the rumors that were circulating about Hal in the past. Hal didn\u2019t react to that in any way. He was also asked why he didn\u2019t pick his \"husband\" as the best friend and he said he couldn\u2019t really imagine his husband as his best friend, or something on those lines.

Robert: What he was going to do next? He was going straight to Prague to film a period movie. He didn\u2019t really give any details about the movie.

\"Hal,

Thea: Was she interested in doing audio books? Basically she just said yes but there was a longer answer too.

Michelle: How did Mel manage to lift Lindsay after proposing since Michelle is smaller in size than Thea? Michelle almost looked \"offended\" by it. She got up from her chair, did a few stretches, took of her jacket and pulled Thea up as well. Then she performed some push ups on stage to warm up. Next she did try to twirl Thea around the same way she had in the series but ended up sort of dropping her. She then explained that they\u2019d had the love on their side then.

\"Thea,

And then it was time for the embarrassing moment. It was time for someone to ask a question from Randy. I had my hand up and so had probably quite a few other people. The moderator did look my way but then commented that Finland had asked too many questions already. Yeah, he didn\u2019t know my name, only that I was from Finland and kept calling me that *g* However, the guy beside me had his hand up as well and the moderator ended up picking him. What a mistake!!! First of all the guy kept calling Randy Justin, even after being corrected by the moderator a few times. *facepalm* And then his question: Do you like Cologne gay boys? *double facepalm* Randy stared at him for a few seconds and then just said yes. And that was it. Someone commented \"That was the last question?\" The moderator did tell Randy that they would get him another question in a few minutes. The guy beside me was practically falling off his chair from laughing and he obviously thought he had been just hilarious with his questions. Everyone else in the hall was all WTF?!? Even if my question wasn\u2019t anything special, it still would have been better than that one. Or I\u2019m pretty sure anyone else\u2019s question would have been better. Okay, Randy did get off easily but still. What a question to ask as a final question\u2026

Sharon: What Debbie-like advice would she give people? She thought about it for a while and then replied: \"Dream big and follow it.\" Very good advice in my opinion.

Don\u2019t know if the moderators forgot all about promising Randy another question or if they just decided not to bother with it since they just moved to the next step in the program. All guests were asked to give one thing that they were taking with them from the convention. You would think that\u2019s a simple question but almost everyone managed to give these really long answers which were very moving and it\u2019s quite possible there was no dry eye in the audience by the end.

Scott: First he said that he\u2019s taking home about 20 extra pounds from all the chocolate people have fed him. Then he got more serious and said that he\u2019s taking with him all the warmth people have shared with them during the weekend.

\"\"

Peter: He said that it\u2019s been great being together again with his co-stars and meeting everyone. He said he\u2019s taking everyone with him. He launched into an explanation how on the previous evening they had all been really tired while they had been driven to the club. They hadn\u2019t even had energy to talk in the car. However, somehow in the club the energy had grabbed them and they\u2019d had a blast dancing. Peter said that when it was time for them to go and they were up on the platform, he had spread his arms and enveloped everyone in a hug. He wanted to do that again now so he spread his arms really wide and then folded them like he was hugging. Many people copied him.

\"\"

Harris: He said it\u2019s been great to see so many people interested in him and his work.

\"\"

Hal: He had liked seeing Sharon\u2019s smile again after so many years. He also said that seeing Harris\u2019 name on the list of actors that were going to make it had been great. He had also quite enjoyed the M&Gs where it was possible to talk with people in a bit more intimate setting.

\"\"

Robert: He liked how talking people had brought back all those small special moments from the series he had already forgotten. People asking him about scenes and him suddenly remembering them. He had also liked having the Babylon moment the previous night.

\"\"

Sharon: She said that since she had been the last one to arrive to the pub on Friday night, due to having a cigarette outside, she had had no idea what kind of welcome the others had received. She said that the love that had poured towards her when she had stepped into the pub had been overwhelming. She wants to take home that love and she also wants to take home the love towards Gale and how he was missed.

\"\"

At this point she held this really touching speech about how Gale really did want to be there and how disappointed he had been because he had to miss it. She said that she had been proud to stand in for him and how glad she was that Gale's absence had given her a chance to play with Randy more. *g* She choked up a few times while she spoke. Gale was supposed to play in some soccer game on Thursday and a few of the cast members had arrived to Cologne a few days early just because of that. She said that if anyone had any doubt about Gale wanting to be there, they were wrong. She got this huge applause with people standing up and cheering, part to her and part to Gale. When people finally quietened down a little, she commented: \"I\u2019ll tell him you said that.\" Cue another applause and a lot of cheering. Scott snapped a picture of people giving the standing ovation and said that he was going to send it to Gale right away. Too bad he didn\u2019t get a reply that he could have shared with us.

Thea: She wanted to say that the convention had reminded her of the fact that it didn\u2019t matter how bad you fell or how different you were, you can always get up. She wanted to thank people for talking to her and sharing their thoughts.

\"\"

Michelle: She was glad to notice how the connection between the cast was still so strong but she also felt that the cast and attendees had created a little world of their own during the weekend where we all were friends and together. She also wanted to share this moment she had experienced on stage. She didn\u2019t specify when it had happened but she said that she can\u2019t have caffeine since she seems to be slightly allergic to it. However, at some point she had had some coffee and immediately it had made her heart race quite badly. She had wondered that it was a bit of a strange feeling and just decided to concentrate on the moderator speaking. Then she had thought that it was possible she might have a heart attack right there and then. However, then she had thought that she was surrounded by so much love in a country that had excellent health care (cue chuckling from the audience) and there were all these friends around her that she was actually quite safe. She knew that whatever happened to her, she would be okay and that had made her heart slow down to a normal rhythm. She also choked up a few times during the speech and so did probably quite a few members of the audience.

\"\"

Randy: He said that his topmost feeling was being humbled. He tends to just do his work and then forget about it since he has a tendency to get exceedingly neurotic if he thinks about his past work too much. However, the convention had shown him that people were still affected by the work he has done and that\u2019s been an incredibly humbling experience. He said that just one person being affected by what he has done, is enough to justify his existence, not to mention a roomful of people. I got a feeling that he was a bit choked up as well and speaking straight from the heart.

\"\"

\"\"

That was the end of it, pretty much. Elke did still come to the stage to say her thanks. The guests were also given a CD that included a song someone had made for the convention. Then they stood there and took their bows. People were cheering like crazy and of course standing up. The noise in the room was actually quite deafening. Then they walked off the stage with people still continuing the cheer. It didn\u2019t take them long to return. Scott jumped off the stage and went through the whole first row and thanked people with hand shakes and hugs. When he got to me and got a hug too and a thank you with my name mentioned. I was touched that he remembered it.

\"\"

\"\"

The guests still stood on stage for a while before taking a final bow and walking backstage. The cheering went on for a while longer and then slowly died. Then it was time to start saying goodbye to people. I wanted to refuse to leave the hall since that would then mean it was all over. I said bye to all the people around me and some other familiar faces. Then we slowly walked to the hotel lobby while making plans to go for dinner still later that night with a small group. On my way out said goodbye to a few other people and really had to swallow my tears constantly because I kept getting choked up. I\u2019ve gotten choked up in other conventions too when it has all ended but I can\u2019t remember anything this bad.

I still need to share one more photo. This wasn't taken by me but the credit goes to Doris Schilling. The photo is just so touching and describes perfectly the emotion at the end of the convention.

\"Robert_Sharon_Doris

In the end there were five of us that went for dinner to this nice place quite close to the hotel. We had nice dinner and few beers. And not one of us actually wanted to leave. We kept dragging the evening longer and longer until we just had to give up. We said our final goodbyes and went our separate ways. I returned to my hotel feeling quite blue. Couldn\u2019t believe it was all over.

Spent the following day just walking around Cologne and secretly hoping I might bump into the guests somewhere. Had no idea if they were still in Cologne or if they had already moved on but there was still hope. However, didn\u2019t see anyone. Did see a few familiar faces from the convention so I guess I wasn\u2019t the only one who was only leaving that night or possibly later.

My trip home didn\u2019t go quite as planned since there were some problems with the flights but in the end did make my connection and even got my luggage. Once I reached my parents\u2019 house, I was feeling way too wired to sleep right away so just spent some time surfing around and reading other peoples\u2019 experiences.

So as an end comment about the convention. I know I had my doubts and I know I was quite vocal about those doubts. Some of my fears did come true since the organization definitely didn\u2019t go as well as it could have gone. There were some pretty big delays occasionally and very long queues. However, the guests were just amazing. I\u2019ve met quite a few actors during my convention life and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure of such an amazing line-up. All the guests were so accommodating and open. It was actually a bit their fault the schedule got messed up since during the autographs they talked with every single person and refused to hurry. Okay, maybe this happening could have been included in the planning face and the guests be given more time for signing. However, as an overall experience the convention was just great. There were glitches, delays and some annoyances but the overall atmosphere was so awesome that I tended to forget whatever bothered me and just enjoyed myself.


<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/533435.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","rise'n'shine"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/533204.html","pubDate":"Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:07:14 GMT","title":"Rise 'n Shine report - Part 2","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/533204.html","description":"And here's the next part. In case you happened to miss the first part it's here<\/a>

This part got pretty long but tried to include as much details from the talks as I could remember as well read from my notes. There are also quite a few pictures. I hope you enjoy!

PLEASE!!! Do not take any of my photos and post them elsewhere without asking me first!<\/b>



Woke already before my alarm went off. I guess I was slightly nervous about what the day was going to bring. Noticed that my throat was a bit achy but hoped it would pass soon. Did have to yell quite a lot during the Pub evening so it was no wonder. Got ready and made sure I had everything I might need during the day with me. I had no plans of returning to the hotel before evening so did need some stuff with me. Then I made my way to the convention hotel. There wasn\u2019t anything going on yet so I just spent my time wandering around and talking with some people. When they opened the registration desk I went and bought tickets to get my photo taken with Harris and Robert. They had made such an impression on me the previous night that I just wanted to get a photo with them.

Then I joined the people who were waiting to be let into the hall. I\u2019ve gotten used to at least relatively neat queues with previous conventions I\u2019ve done but the group waiting there was nothing like that. I did situate myself near the front of the group since according to my understanding Loft tickets were supposed to be let into the hall first. After some waiting (beyond the time they were supposed to start the official program) we were allowed to move a bit forwards. Next we were stopped right at the doors to the actual hall. We were told that they were still working out some technical things. The group standing in front of the doors was quite mismatched. There was no order in it. I had some people with Woody\u2019s tickets standing in front of me. People were pressing forwards from behind and I was very glad I don\u2019t have problems with big crowds and small spaces.

Suddenly one of the staff realized that they were supposed to let the Loft tickets into the hall first and asked all Loft ticket holders to come to the front. Slightly hard to do at that point when there were several hundred people already pressing forwards. Did manage to get myself at least pretty close to the front. After some more waiting, they finally let us in and there was almost a stampede when people tried to get to the best seats. I knew I was going to get a seat from the first row since it was reserved for us but there is difference if you sit near the middle or at the edges. We were told not to run and I listened. Some people didn\u2019t *g* Still managed to get an okay seat six seats from the middle on the left side.

Then there was some more waiting and I amused myself by talking with the people around me. Had some people I knew in the row behind me. It did take a while before the program started. We were quite a lot late already at that point but of course being late is completely normal in conventions.

Finally the moderators got on the stage and said their hellos. I sort of expected that they would have played some music from the series in the beginning but there was nothing. They told us that there were people from 29 countries in there and then called every country and the people from that country were supposed to cheer and wave their flags.

\"The
The moderators and the flags

Then they introduced Elke and exchanged a few words with her. Next they brought Scott onto the stage to tell about the process of getting the convention together. And then it was finally time to bring out the rest of the guests.

\"The
Elke with the moderators

\"Scott
Scott and Elke

They started with Scott. They went through his whole history which was a bit unnecessary since I\u2019m sure everyone knew most of it already. Then they started the next introduction and Peter ran on the stage. Too bad he was too early since they were supposed to go through the whole work history before actually calling the actor on stage. Peter did a quick retreat and then came out again at his cue. They went through the whole cast the same way. It took quite a while since they all have been doing so many things and pretty much everything was mentioned. I found it quite unnecessary since I\u2019m sure most of the audience was very familiar with the work the actors have done. And if they aren\u2019t they can always research it. *g*

\"Scott\"

\"Peter
Peter and Scott at their table

\"Randy\"
Gotta love this pic!!!

There was a lot of cheering for every cast member. Hal wasn\u2019t happy with the applause he got so he kept encouraging people to clap more...

\"Cast\"

When all the guests were on stage they were asked some pretty basic questions, among which when they had arrived to Cologne and if they had come straight from the US or had they been somewhere first. The moderators had the impression that Scott had been the first in the country but Sharon then commented that her plane had landed at least five minutes before Scott\u2019s did. Randy had gone to Paris first and gotten to Germany a few days before. Robert and Michelle had also been to Paris and had caught up with Randy there. Can\u2019t remember when Harris and Thea had got in. Hal told us that he had gotten in quite at the last minute and had been very jet lagged in the press conference. He said it had felt almost like he was drunk because he was so tired. Then he said something in the lines of \"Well, at least I made it.\" This can be taken as a crack against Gale not being there or he might not have meant anything with it. Thea was asked about his German skills and asked to recite a poem she had written in German. Couldn\u2019t understand a word of it but sounded good. At one point all the actors were brought glasses of beer since there seems to be a tradition in Cologne to have a nine o\u2019clock beer (it was closer to ten at that point, though *g*).

\"Peter\"

There was a few words said about the press conference that was held the previous day. It was seriously arranged in a place called Babylon badehause which means bathhouse. And what was even funnier was that the place was still in use. A few of the guests commented that it had surprised them a little when men in just their towels walked around the place in a few occasions.

\"Michelle\"

Hal was asked why his sun glasses were hanging on his back. He replied that it was easier to hug people and they wouldn\u2019t get smashed in between. Good reasoning *g*

\"Hal\"

There might have been some other talk as well but my memory fails now. Then they decided to take a few questions from the audience. When they asked if anyone had any questions I had my hand up immediately and the moderator going around with the microphone happened to be just in front of me so he gave me the turn. He made me stand up so that everyone could see me (YAY?). Then I had to tell them my name and where I was from. There was a guy going around with a videocamera for the convention DVD and he came and sticked the camera right into my face. Felt quite nervous all of a sudden. Somehow managed to get my question out. Had it on paper since it had been provided to me by a friend.

It must be nice to know that, even after so long since Queer As Folk was aired, there are so many fans who still love the series. This is something very special, it doesn\u2019t happen to all TV shows. What do you think made QAF stay in its fans\u2019 hearts?<\/i>

Hal was the first one to answer the question. Can\u2019t remember everything he said but he talked about how there had been lots of firsts in the series and how that might have caught peoples\u2019 interest. He also said that their series had been said to be the gay version of Sex in the City. He didn\u2019t quite agree with that since he didn\u2019t remember seeing HIV positive people in SitC or people getting bashed or many of the other subject matters that were handled in their show. Peter put it all together really nicely by saying that people came for the Queer but stayed for the Folk. Also Robert said something to that but unfortunately can\u2019t remember what it was. Maybe it\u2019ll be on the DVD.

\"Thea

Next there was a question about the LGBT-community and how it has expanded in recent years to include even more people and different groups. Peter talked about how things are changing really fast at the moment and how media certainly has had its part in it. He does hope the progress continues to go forward. Robert added that it is no way a bad thing that the concept of LGBT-community is expanding. There used to be clearly different camps which didn\u2019t mix with each other but now it\u2019s more laid back. Hal threw in his two cents by saying that it\u2019s all about of being who you are and about getting back to partying as soon as all the laws get sorted out.

\"Sharon

\"Thea\"

Harris was asked about joining the series. He admitted to being quite worried how people would react to his character. Being an underage HIV positive guy who had been forced to prostitution by his mom. He was worried he wouldn\u2019t be accepted. Hal added that they had had a trouble with the age of consent. He even talked about how on the first season they had filmed everything for the pilot where Justin was revealed to be 17 years old but then some people had come to them and said that it was possible they wouldn\u2019t be able to show it due to legal issues. However, since in Pennsylvania the age of consent is sixteen they were in the clear. Hunter was originally fifteen but turned sixteen pretty quickly. There was also some talk from Hal about working in close contact with Robert which made Robert raise his eyebrows in a pretty suggestive manner. They also mentioned that this issue was again one thing that had never been addressed in any TV show before, a gay male couple adopts an adolescent boy.

\"Hal

Next question dealt with coming out and the actors were asked to give advice to young people thinking about coming out. I\u2019m sorry to say but this was the point where I started to get annoyed by Mr. Sparks. The moderators sort of tried to imply that maybe one of the people who hadn\u2019t answered anything yet, could field the question. Randy was already raising the microphone to answer when Hal talked over him. He started talking about some running buddies of who two had been gay and how they had only come out after they moved away from the area. He said that in some parts of the US it can be hazardous to your health to come out. Peter countered that with saying that on the other hand it\u2019s better when it\u2019s out in the open. He quoted Brian by saying \u201cNo apologies, no regrets\u201d and got a huge cheer for that. And then the moderators cut the Q&A because they needed to get started with the autographs.

All Loft ticket holders were told to get in the line. There we then stood and watched while they prepared everything. I did my best to get organized so that I wouldn\u2019t waste time with juggling with my stuff when it was my turn. Finally all the actors were ready and the first ones were let through. Then it was my turn. Immediately noticed an interesting thing. All the guests had their pictures there and they were already pre-signed. They just personalized them there and then. Not a bad idea in a situation where they mainly just have one type of pictures to sign. Probably saved their wrists a little. They must have been signing them in preparation already earlier.

The first one up was Harris. Said my hellos and then asked if he was having fun. He did say that he was enjoying himself. I told him that I was glad that he had made it and he agreed with me and added that it had been a bit short notice obviously. Asked him what he had thought about the arrival to the party with everyone cheering and yelling. He did thought it had been a slightly surreal experience. He certainly hadn\u2019t expected it. Commented about him staying there quite late. He said that he wanted the chance to talk with everyone. Didn\u2019t mention that since he mostly stayed at the other end of the VIP area, it wasn\u2019t like he actually interacted much with fans, except in the beginning when we were still allowed on that area. *g* Had him sign a picture of him and then my Season 4 poster. Okay, he\u2019s not actually on it but he was in most of the episodes, so a big part of the season anyway.

Then it was Robert\u2019s turn. Complimented him about being so open and friendly towards people at the party and how I liked the way he initiated contact by coming to talk with us and shake hands. He seemed to get a bit flustered by that. Did talk about some random other things as well. Got him to sign a picture as well as the poster too.

And then it was Hal. Tried to come up with something to say to him as well. Did comment on the party and how he left quite early. He repeated what he had said on stage about being really jet lagged and also that it had been too noisy in the club. According to him he had done his time hanging out in clubs all night around. Again a picture and poster signed. Also got the Rage comic for him to sign. Opened the comic from the first page where there are the names of the \"authors\". Thought that he could sign beside \"Michael Novotny\". Instead he turned a page and signed on a strip where Zephyr is. Doesn\u2019t really matter but felt a bit annoyed any way since I thought I had quite clearly indicated that I wanted him to sign the first page.

And on to Michelle. She immediately complemented me on my question and said that it had been a very good one. Talked with her about arriving to the party as well. She had been quite surprised by the reaction too. Definitely hadn\u2019t expected it.

Thea: Also talked about the party and how great it had been. My memory really isn\u2019t the best one.

Peter: He also complemented me about my question. Told him how great it was to meet him. Then we just talked about the party and the reception they had gotten.

Scott: Told him how glad I was to meet him as well. While he was signing the poster he told me that it was originally shot differently. His head had been on Sharon\u2019s lap but at the end product his head had ended up really close to the bottom corner and he didn\u2019t like it. The picture was then digitally changed so that he was laying next to hear instead but he did say that there were still also the original ones around.

Randy: He remembered seeing me in Paris and almost remembered my name too. Was quite impressed since it was over 1\u00bd years ago after all. Ended up babbling about the T-shirt I had been wearing there and how I treasured the autograph he had written then with the text \"Pia, You ARE a fucking princess.\" I saw him writing something more than just his name on the poster but didn\u2019t see what it was. Said my thanks and moved on.

Sharon: She obviously remembered talking to me the previous night since she immediately commented that now she could hear me much better than the previous night. She asked me where I was from and when I said I was from Finland she was all amazed that I had made the trip that far. Considering there were people from Japan and Australia in the convention, Finland really isn\u2019t that far. I did sort of say that it wasn\u2019t actually that far away. She was all surprised and then just said that she had flunked geography in school. Told her that it was just about a four hour flight. Had heard somewhere that she hadn\u2019t felt well the previous night and had therefore left the party early. She denied that and just said that it had been too noisy for her. She said that she can\u2019t really be in a place where she needs to yell to be heard since he can\u2019t afford to lose her voice. Told her about Scott\u2019s comment about the poster and how it had been shot differently originally. She did give me a few other comments about the poster too, e.g. that Thea\u2019s leg seemed to be a really weird position. She didn\u2019t make much progress with the signing because we just kept talking and she needed to ask my name a few times. When I apologized for distracting her she just said that there was no need and that she was genuinely interested in what I had to say. What a nice thing for her to say. *happy sigh*

Then I returned to my seat to get organized again. At that point I noticed that I had forgotten to ask Randy\u2019s autograph to the Rage comic. Feeling quite embarrassed I joined the queue again and went to him to get that signed as well. He sort of gave me this half smile when I explained about forgetting it. He signed on the first page where I wanted and then I was all done.

\"The
The poster I got them all to sign

\"Randy's
A close up of Randy's autograph. It says: Pia, Great to see you again. Princess Pia! Randy Harrison

Remained sitting in the hall and watched other people getting their autographs since I really didn\u2019t have anything else to do. Snapped some pics of the guests as well since that was obviously allowed. Was right across from Peter and Scott but they moved around too much so that my photos didn\u2019t succeed too well *g*

\"Peter\"
\"Randy\"
\"Hal\"
\"Randy\"
\"Scott\"

Probably managed to get the wrath of Scott\u2019s and Peter\u2019s PAs upon me since I kept going to them and talking about different stuff while they had no one in front of them getting an autograph. Also had some Finnish chocolates with me and offered them some. They seemed to like it. Peter seemed to have trouble sitting still and when I asked him about that he said that it\u2019s a sign that he\u2019s tired. It\u2019s his way of keeping himself awake. I told him that I had been pretty much forced to dance around a little on the previous night because my feet were hurting so much that I couldn\u2019t keep my weight on them for long periods of time. That made him chuckle a little. Did try to offer some chocolate to Randy as well but he politely declined.

\"Randy\"

Peter also kept sticking his feet from under the table and some people bumped on them when they moved to stand in front of his table. I guess his legs were too long to be held comfortably under the table for long periods of time.

\"Peter\"

At some point went and talked with this one woman I had met in LA as well. She had written a book about Queer as Folk with a special section about Gale in it. She was selling the book at the convention. It seemed the books were selling pretty well. Talked with her for a while and bought my own copy of the book. There\u2019s actually one part in the book which was contributed by me about meeting Gale in LA.

Then just hung around in the hall until a member of staff came to say to us that they were serving lunch in the restaurant. With my ticket I got a free lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday it was a nice buffet table. The warm foods were nothing special but they had some very nice salads and just heavenly cream of asparagus soup. Could have just eaten that. The dessert table was great too. The only funny thing was that coffee wasn\u2019t included in the lunch. Sort of craved some but decided to skip it since I would have had to pay it myself.

After lunch it was back to the hall. The first panel was supposed to start but the guests were still signing. Photo shoots were supposed to start as well but those were delayed too. Finally they announced that Randy\u2019s photo shoot was going to start soon and people were told to queue. I didn\u2019t bother going to the queue yet since I thought Loft tickets had queue priority. Found out later that I was wrong. But any way sat on my seat until Randy actually left his table and headed upstairs. Only then I walked towards the queue and went to pretty much the front of it. Some people probably thought me as a huge bitch but we had been promised queue priority and knowing that the panels might start soon, I didn\u2019t want to end up missing anything. For some weird reason they also said that Thea, Michelle and Robert were going to the photos as well but they just kept sitting there and signing away.

It did still take a while before they started letting people in. When it was my turn, Randy called me by name. Had bought two photos with him. Wanted a normal pose and then had decided to try for a huggy one. The photographer snapped the first shot but didn\u2019t stop to ask if I wanted to change the pose. However, got my hand up just in time to tell him that I wanted another pose, a huggy one. Only then I realized that I probably should have asked Randy first that he was alright with it so I turned to him and asked. He just nodded so I wrapped my arms around his waist. However, he just did this half hug thing but anyway, I\u2019m quite happy with the pic.

Made it back to the hall before the first panel started. It was supposed to be Scott and Peter and I didn\u2019t want to miss them. Of course they couldn\u2019t start the panel before all the actors were done with the autographs since they were in the same room.

By the time the panel did start, they were behind the schedule almost two hours. The moderators came on stage and talked about random stuff. Then they called Scott and Peter onto the stage. At first they walked there in a normal way but then suddenly turned around and went to hide behind the curtain. Then they peaked in from around it. Got a lot of cheers from the audience. Then they took their seats.

The first question was about the crystal meth story arc from the moderators. Peter mentioned something about it being an epidemic in the US. He had loved doing those scenes and was very proud of them. He thought they both did some of their best work there. Scott got a lot of letters from people who were struggling with or had managed to get rid of their addictions. They also shared that originally they were both just supposed to be Michael\u2019s friends but Scott and Peter had such instant chemistry between them that it was changed so that they were good friends as well. And of course later started dating.

\"Scott\"

Someone from the audience asked about the Emmett and Drew story line. This sprung some discussion about openly gay athletes and how there still aren\u2019t that many of them. Athletes only come out once their careers are already over. Peter\u2019s overall comment about how their story ended was \u201cEmmett got the shaft and not in the hot way.\u201d He also admitted that he sometimes thinks Emmett and Drew together while he\u2019s alone in his bed. In his opinion they got back together after a year or two. He thinks Drew came to Emmett and said something on the lines of \"You were always the one.\" Cue huge \"awwwwwww\" from the audience. At few occasions Peter pretty much tried to swallow his mic in a very lewd way...

\"Peter\"

Peter got asked if his wardrobe was in anyway similar to Emmett\u2019s and did his wardrobe change during the series. Peter said that his wardrobe got less fabulous while the series was on. He also shared with us that the first outfit we see Emmett in (the orange leather pants and a see through shirt) was an outfit he saw in a dream and shared with the costume designer. The pants were from a clothing line by Tom of Finland and when the pilot was filmed they weren\u2019t available yet. They were given a prototype of the pants to use. Scott said those pants had made him thirsty for some orange juice.

Scott shared that when he first came for some costume fittings, he was given these really small leather shorts and a tight tank top. He just remembers that his exact thoughts were, \"this is not the character I auditioned for\". He says there\u2019s a Polaroid picture of him in those clothes somewhere but he doesn\u2019t know where. Peter said that they\u2019d had a different costume designer for the pilot than for the rest of the series. It seemed the original costume designer had been to one Pride and seen some people dressed in small tight leather shorts there and decided that all gays dressed like that. In original plans she had Emmett wearing all these big flowery hats and such but Peter had put a stop to that.

\"Peter

Next Scott was asked if the drug addiction was based on some real stories. He admitted that he had tried ecstasy at one point in his life but had stopped there. The experience had been a way too good one and he didn\u2019t want to experience a bad one. In preparation for the story line he did go to meetings and talked with people to find out about their experiences. Scott and Peter both said that while they are proud of the work they did, it had been very difficult for them. They had gotten used to being there for each other during the series but suddenly they really couldn\u2019t. They said it wasn\u2019t possible for them to goof around with each other one moment and then say all those awful things to each other the next. They didn\u2019t talk much while that arc was on. Scott said he had hard time during the arc because going through all that stuff made him quite miserable. That made Peter share that when you pretend to be someone else for 16 hours a day, it changes you. Since Emmett was the character that he was, he was mostly upbeat for the whole duration of the series, while Scott quite often felt miserable when Ted was being miserable. (A\/N: Poor guy *g*)

Next question was about Ted going blond in season five. Scott wanted to make it clear right in the beginning that he did not bleach his pubes during that arc. Cue cheers and laughter from the audience. He told us that the whole bleaching thing had been quite excruciating for him. They changed filming technique that season and didn\u2019t want to end up messing up the pilot in case the new system didn\u2019t work. That\u2019s why they filmed the second episode of the season first. Because his hair was so dark, it needed to be bleached twice to get the desired effect. But then he needed to go back to his natural color when they filmed the first episode and then back to blond for the third episode. He said that his hair was bleached three times in just a few weeks when you are only supposed to bleach your hair once every three months or something. He told a story about how he had been petting his cat and had also ran his fingers through his hair. When he looked at his hands, he noticed that both had about the same amount of hair in them. Obviously didn\u2019t do good for his hair *g*

\"Scott

As a final question they were asked about taking the part. They both said that they had been slightly scared when reading the script for the first time but they were very happy that they had taken the part and gotten to be part of the great experience.

I was in the queue to ask a question as well but they cut the Q&A just when it was going to be my turn. *pout* Oh well, my own fault for joining the queue too late. Although, in my opinion the Q&As were way too short anyway. Every Q&A was just reserved 30 minutes which is like nothing.

After a small break Hal, Robert and Harris came on stage. First there was talk about if it had been challenging to get a HIV+ story line into the show. It was mentioned that of course the show already had Uncle Vic in it but his case was slightly different. He already had AIDS and had almost died from it a few years back but this was all told in the backstory. The producers wanted a story line where a healthy male has relationship with a HIV+ male. There was some backlash towards the producers and actors when Ben got rejected by Michael. However, at that point everyone on the inside already knew that they were going to end up together anyway, since they had already filmed the episodes.

\"All

\"Robert\"

They were asked if they kept any of the props from the set. Hal and Robert had kept their rings. Hal talked something about how when they got married his original ring was way too big for him and needed to be taped to his finger so that it didn\u2019t fall off. On the fifth season he had a ring that actually fit. Harris had kept the swimcap and goggles he used during the scenes where he swam for the school\u2019s swim team. He also said he was still using them. He had also taken one of the toy robots that Michael had. Hal had also snagged a busted silver clarinet that for some reason was hanging in the apartment. Robert admitted to taking Ben\u2019s glasses, one of the brown leather jackets as well as two paintings from the apartment.

\"Harris\"

Hal got asked about how it had been to do the role as a straight male. He said that it had had its positive and negative sides. His parents saw the first episode only almost a week after it was originally aired because something always came up. Hal\u2019s father had a friend who had been his friend for decades. He had a problem with Hal\u2019s role in the series and that friendship ended there. They never spoke again. Hal did claim he has lost some work due to his role but also that he had no desire to work with people who had a problem with his previous work.

I stood up to ask a question next. I asked Harris and Robert how it had felt to come to the series slightly later than rest of the established cast. They both said that it had been relatively easy. Everyone had been very welcoming and nice. They both also had nude scenes right on their first day on set. Made things relaxed right from the beginning *g*

\"Rober

Part of Michael\u2019s comic book obsession came from Hal because he was familiar with them. They had originally planned Michael to be a Trekkie (in the UK version Vince was a Doctor Who fan) but it was changed to comics after Hal\u2019s input. They had to use some smaller titles because not all the big comic houses were that enthusiastic about them being linked with an openly gay series. DC really wasn\u2019t open to them being used in the series whereas Dark Horse and Marvel were quite alright with it.

Next Hal was asked if it was difficult for him to sing false notes when Michael performed that song to Ben since he can actually sing. He replied that all the dialogue and singing in that scene had been done with ADR. Can\u2019t remember why that was, though. Next he of course was asked to sing, which he did.

\"Hal\"

Then there was a question about what their future looked like since when the series ended they were quite a happy family. Robert immediately said that Ben will live until he\u2019s 110. Hal was quick to add that Ben will probably be the healthiest of them since Michael has put on some weight from all the crap he eats. Harris was on the same lines with Hunter\u2019s addiction to Captain Crunch.

They\u2019d had had no trouble to work with each other. Had felt like family right from the beginning. Robert even said that now that he saw Harris for the first time in years, he got slightly emotional to see \"his boy\" all grown up.

That was the end of the panel. I immediately joined the queue to get my photo done with Harris. After some waiting it was my turn. I was planning on asking for a huggy photo but only got out the part \"Can I have a hug\u2014\" before he totally bear hugged me and squeezed me really tight. I was so surprised by it that I probably froze for a few seconds. That probably made him realize what I had been about to say and said: \"Oh, you wanted a hug photo?\" I mumbled something to that. He still held me quite tight while the photo was taken. I was quite happy to be there.

When I returned to the hall the next panel had already started. The panel dealt with homophobia and they had Peter, Robert and Michelle on stage together with the moderators and two members of the staff. That panel was probably the most serious one of them all because of its subject matter. When I got to my seat, Peter was saying how everyone can do their part. He has been involved in some projects of which one of the most recent ones has been meeting some gay right activists from China. He can see things changing even if the progress is very slow.

\"Robert,

Robert told about his family\u2019s reaction when he decided to come out in the middle of filming QaF in a magazine article. He told that his mom had actually said: \"Why don\u2019t you just shoot us in the heart instead?\" That\u2019s an awful thing to say. Even if it has been years, Robert still got slightly emotional about it.
Michelle is also very active in different projects and in politics. She has been in Washington to help people being heard.

\"Michelle

Robert told us how amazed he has been by the number of people who have told him that they\u2019ve discovered the series only a small while ago and how it still influences people so much.
There was some talk about the series affecting their work and Robert said that he has gained some and lost some job opportunities because of being involved with QAF. And for some roles it hasn\u2019t made any difference. He tries to focus on what works. Peter said that he has lost some roles because casting agents don\u2019t want him in the role because the character isn\u2019t gay. He has gotten this treatment from even gay casting agents. One of them said that gay casting agents can actually be very homophobic when it comes to casting roles.

\"Robert

Next Scott\u2019s photo was up. Got a nice cuddly one with him but don\u2019t like my expression in the photo. He made me laugh with some comment so I look all weird *g*

Got back to my seat a bit after the next panel started. According to the program there was supposed to be a panel with Robert, Peter and Randy but I guess due to time constrains they decided to skip it which was a pity. Or maybe it was sort of combined with the homophobia panel. So it was Michelle\u2019s and Thea\u2019s turn on stage. They were asked if playing a lesbian has made a difference on their career. Thea said that in parts it has had a positive effect since she now gets offered roles he wasn\u2019t even considered for earlier.

They were also asked about the Sam story line. Michelle commented that Mel felt quite betrayed by it all and also made her wonder if she wasn\u2019t enough for Lindsay anymore. Thea talked about how throughout the whole series Lindsay was torn between Brian and Mel.

\"Thea

Thea was asked if the animalistic nature of the relations with Sam had been difficult to go through. She did say it had been but the actor playing Sam had been a complete gentleman. She also said that it had been a lot harder to do the threesome with Leda for some reason. She said that the energy had been completely different.

Next they talked about the scene where Lindsay fertilizing Mel with Michael\u2019s sperm. They both said it had been quite an emotional scene to make.

They were both asked which memory they would pick out from the series. Thea said it would have to be Granny Faye\u2019s letters. Michelle picked the wedding scene when Mel and Lindsay get married. It had been quite emotional too with walking down the aisle.

Thea was asked about her music and she said that she doesn\u2019t have a record out but hopes to have one in the future. She\u2019s also trying to get a cabaret show together.

Lindsay\u2019s relationship with her parents was discussed as well. In Thea\u2019s opinion in that relationship lies the core of Lindsay\u2019s dilemma and the whole thing is quite heart breaking. Her parents are in complete denial. Handling an issue like this was also one of the ways where QAF broke down walls. It showed that sexuality is messy.

I got up to ask from Thea about her work with Free2Luv. It was quite obvious it was an important subject matter for her. Did say that I thought she was doing some very important work with spreading the word and working towards bullying. Did say that the cause is close to my heart too since I was bullied in school. In general she thought that only through educating and making people aware of the issue progress can be made. However, she did also say that sometimes bullying has to be met with bullying and get the message through that way. They ended their panel by kissing and of course got a huge cheer.

Right after that panel I hurried to get my photo done with Peter. Once more got a nice cuddly photo. Since I knew they were going to start taking photos with Robert soon too, I stayed up on the balcony so that I could join the queue right when it was formed. Knew that the next panel was going to be Randy and Sharon and didn\u2019t want to end up missing it. Listened the beginning of the panel from the balcony then since they started before Robert was ready for the photos.

Sharon\u2019s first words on stage were that she was Gale Harold, in drag. Got a huge cheer from the crowd. In some way Randy referred to Debbie as Justin mom. That sprung a discussion about how Justin had had a cool mom but a dick for a father. Sharon said Justin was Debbie\u2019s sunshine. That got a very \u201cSunshine\u201d like smile from Randy. She also said that she had really enjoyed the role she had as everyone\u2019s mother. However, they were both of the opinion that Debbie is quite cool when she\u2019s not actually your mother. Michael never went for her for advice but others did.

\"Sharon\"

Where\u2019s Justin in 2012? Randy tried avoiding answering the question and went on about how it\u2019s a fictional character and anything he comes up with is as valid as what we can come up with and how he\u2019s more interested in hearing our versions. Someone from the audience yelled \"read fanfiction\" which was met with a few laughs and a few \u201cno!!!\u201d shouts. Randy did go on to say that he thinks Justin is still in New York and that he really took to New York. The person who asked the question commented that \u201cpeople don\u2019t want to hear that.\u201d Randy immediately replied that he knows people don\u2019t want to hear that and that\u2019s why he didn\u2019t want to answer the question. He believed in Justin\u2019s decision to go and thinks he became a success since that\u2019s what he wanted. Sharon asked if Randy thinks Justin ever fell out of love with Brian, to which Randy replied that if Justin really stayed in New York that long, the relationship obviously changes. People weren\u2019t happy with that. He tried to go on saying that change is inevitable and it\u2019s not always of the bad. Poor guy looked all frustrated with trying to answer the question the way he saw things even if he certainly knew it wasn\u2019t what people wanted to hear and people protesting.

\"Randy\"

Then they were asked what their favorite scene together was. They both agreed that it had definitely been their first scene together where Justin meets Debbie and gets his nickname. Randy said that he had been very nervous because of that scene, it was Dame Sharon Gless after all.

\"Randy

At that point they called Robert\u2019s photos so went to take that. Once more asked for a cuddly photo and definitely got one. I guess I was way too comfortable there since I kept closing my eyes in the photos. I think the photographer took about five shots to get one with me my eyes open.

Then it was back to the hall and the talk. Got back there just when Randy was asked about doing a lot of artistic roles. He feels that it\u2019s easy for him to relate to those roles. He went on for quite a while about how the most important thing for him is to understand the art the character is trying to create. He also shortly returned to the Justin\/Brian relationship by saying that his reason for believing that Justin stayed in New York because he wants him to be successful and in his opinion that can only happen in New York.

When Randy finished his answer Sharon just looked at him and said: \u201cIsn\u2019t he just amazing? This is why I love him.\u201d And of course everyone cheered. Randy obviously felt a bit bashful about the whole thing. He reached for Sharon\u2019s hand and gave it a kiss.

\"Randy

Sharon was asked about Debbie being a work-a-holic. Sharon replied that she wasn\u2019t entirely sure Debbie was a work-a-holic but she herself definitely is. She said something about working keeping her young. Sharon had a theory about Debbie\u2019s past. She thinks she wanted to open a beauty salon. That\u2019s what all the wigs and make up were for. Sharon said that she originally had 17 wigs but in the end they only let her use one. Getting pregnant made her give up the beauty salon dream but she still made the most of her life and concentrate on being a mother, first to Michael and later to all the boys.

\"Sharon\"

Next question was about the dildo scene where Ted and Emmett share some secrets. Sharon said that the only day her husband decided to visit the set during the whole duration of filming the series, was that day. She also admitted that even if the scene was cut right when she was leaning down, she did actually go down on that dildo. According to her it had been very difficult to keep a straight face while doing that scene.

Randy was asked about the final scene with Chris Hobbs. He said that it had been a very difficult one to do. He could remember feeling extremely relieved when he was walking away. He has also given some thought to what could have happened if Justin hadn\u2019t walked away.

Then there was a question about Randy\u2019s thoughts about the open relationship between Justin and Brian. He said that every couple is different and that for some people such an open relationship works and for some it doesn\u2019t.

\"Randy

Sharon talked about how she had wanted the part from the moment she heard about it. She called Showtime and told them she wanted the part of Debbie and who did she need to fuck to make it happen. It seemed Showtime thought she would bring class to the series but they couldn\u2019t have been more wrong since that definitely wasn\u2019t what Sharon wanted. She felt the series could be trouble and she wanted to be part of it.

Had gotten up to ask a question but once more they cut the Q&A just before it was my turn. *pout*

Sharon got all emotional while giving her thanks. She said that the love people have shown her and the others hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed. I\u2019m pretty sure there were quite a few people who got slightly misty eyed when she said that. People gave them a standing ovation. At one point Randy got on one knee in front of Sharon to \"worship\" her.

\"Randy

Then it was time for me to head to get my photos sorted. They had this weird system of you needing to queue to get your photos sorted into a folder according to your badge number. It was a veeeery slow process. There were quite a few people before me. I could have of course stayed in the line already after my last photo but I didn\u2019t want to miss the panel with Sharon and Randy. So there I stood for quite a while. It was around eight in the evening at that point and after a while I started wondering if I\u2019d make it to the party on time. The queue advanced very slowly. By quarter to nine I hadn\u2019t gotten much anywhere. I do suspect some people cut the line since first there were people behind me and suddenly there wasn\u2019t *g* Anyway, since it looked like it would still take a while I decided to make a run to my hotel to change my clothes and then leave straight after getting the photos sorted to the party.

So half ran to my hotel, go changed, put on some more make up and hurried back. I hadn\u2019t had time to eat anything after lunch so I grabbed a small bag of cheetos and that was my dinner. Very healthy, I know *g* When I got back to the convention hotel, the queue hadn\u2019t gone much forward. One member of the staff did come and apologize the situation. He gave all the people who were still in the queue tram tickets to get to the party as well as stamps that would get them into the VIP area in the party. That stamp wasn\u2019t much use to me since I was going to be allowed there anyway. Still it was a nice gesture on their part.

Finally I got myself sorted and was ready to go. It was around 9:50pm at that point. Met my friend in the lobby and we took a cab to the club where the party was held. Got there about quarter past but the doors weren\u2019t open yet. After some waiting we were allowed in and directed downstairs where the VIP area was supposed to be. My first look of the VIP area caused this WTF?!? feeling. Earlier it had been stated that Loft tickets were going to have a VIP section again and so were the Diner tickets. However, the area where we were shown was barely big enough for the Loft ticket holders since there were just about ten seats and a little standing room and we wondered where they were going to put the guests. However, the VIP area for the Diner ticket holders was even more ridiculous. It only had one sofa and maybe room for a few dozen people. There were around 100 Diner tickets if I remember correctly. There was a lot of confusion what was going on.

In the end the areas were combined and it was only for the Loft ticket holders. I\u2019m sure the Diner ticket holders were pleased when they didn\u2019t get the promised VIP area after all. Hung around the area and sipped my one complimentary sparkling wine glass. Talked with some familiar people. Wasn\u2019t entirely sure if I wanted to stay in the party since was feeling quite tired and also cranky about the photo thing. Had hoped to have a chance to rest for a while before coming to the party but obviously that didn\u2019t happen. However, around the time I started to think about maybe heading home the guests once more saved the day by arriving to the club. They were shown into the same area where we were and suddenly the place felt really crowded. I ended up standing right next to Harris and Scott. Was actually so close to them that I was afraid I was going to bump into them if someone bumped into me. Clinked glasses with them and talked about random things for a while.

Scott moved on after a while but I stayed talking with Harris. There was one other girl standing there as well. Harris talked about swimming and told us how he had hired a swimming coach to help him with the swimming scenes in the series. He had wanted to do the scenes himself. They had had a double for him but they didn\u2019t need to use him since Harris was able to swim so well himself. He also said that he had really enjoyed the day. It had been interesting meeting everyone, hearing their thoughts and opinions.

Then it was time for some dance entertainment. I missed some of it but apparently Robert had wriggled into a cage they had beside the dance floor and danced there for a while. Then the show was moved upstairs where they had a platform that came a little on top of the dance floor. Robert and Michelle were having great time dancing there. At the same time Scott and Peter were having their own show a small distance away. From my place I didn\u2019t see them too well but they got a lot of cheers. Next Peter moved to dance on the platform with Robert for a while. They really seemed to enjoy themselves. Robert wiped sweat from his forehead on his T-shirt and at the same time showed a very nice six pack. (me shallow? what makes you think that?) Then it was time for Scott and Peter to put on a show. Peter kept ripping Scott\u2019s shirt open and then pretending to be all innocent about it. I\u2019m sure Scott regretted wearing a button up shirt just then. Then Robert joined them as well and all three danced there together. In the end Peter leaned towards people and sort of performed a hug towards everyone. Scott also gave a small bow and then the show was over.

\"Robert
\"Robert

I returned to the VIP area. It was a lot emptier. However, it didn\u2019t take long before the guests were back there and it was again slightly crowded. They didn\u2019t stay long, though. They just came to stand there for a few minutes before leaving. Randy and Harris stayed behind. I wanted to exchange a few words with Randy but he was quite efficiently surrounded by staff and security. Should have probably taken a hint but tried to approach him anyway. Asked a staff member very politely if I could exchange a few words with Randy. He told me that he didn\u2019t really have a voice so he wasn\u2019t talking with people. Accepted that and just said that I had just wanted to tell him that I appreciated him being there and it was great seeing him again. The guy asked for my name and relayed my message to Randy. He did look my way and gave me a small smile.

\"A
A dancer at the club

A while later found myself standing close to Harris again and got talking with him some more. Commented something about it being fun that they were playing the music they were playing since I had never gotten to dance to it in a club before. He looked me a bit stangely and just said something about it being dance music. Said to him that I had gotten to the series so late that I hadn\u2019t caught the songs played anywhere. At that point a light bulb went on over his head and he asked if the music was from the series. When I replied affirmatively, he said he hadn\u2019t known. Just commented on that that Hunter had been so young that he had never been to Babylon. He chuckled and agreed with me.

Someone else came to talk with him so I discreetly moved away. After a while Randy and Harris left as well and almost immediately the VIP area pretty much emptied. I stayed talking with some people a while longer before going for a walk around the club to see if I saw any familiar faces. There were a few.

\"Babylon!\"

Did stay dancing for a while before deciding that it was probably best that I headed back to my hotel. Knew that I needed to be up pretty early. Walked to the tram station and just saw a tram leaving. The next one only came 20 minutes later. Looked at the cabs and decided that I didn\u2019t want to pay the cab all by myself. Started walking towards my hotel. Yes, not one of my brightest ideas to walk around in a strange city around 2am. However, made it back to my hotel without incident. Was asleep almost immediately after my head hit the pillow.

Sunday<\/a>
<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/533204.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","rise'n'shine"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/532847.html","pubDate":"Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:47:48 GMT","title":"Rise 'n Shine report - Part 1","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/532847.html","description":"Okay, done with the first part. Somehow I've got a feeling that this report might again get slightly long. However, I do hope I won't bore you. I've included some pics under the cut as well :)

PLEASE!!! Do not take any of my photos and post them elsewhere without asking me first!<\/b>



Will spare you from the boring parts of my travel to Cologne. Suffice to say that things didn\u2019t go without a hitch. There were small problems with both of my flights so I was very happy when I actually reached the Cologne airport on schedule and even received my luggage. That was a definite bonus as well :) The trip to town was quite uneventful but I do have to say that I noticed on the trip that the public transport system wasn\u2019t that tourist friendly. If I hadn\u2019t found out before hand which number trains\/subways\/trams I should take, I would have been totally lost. There weren\u2019t that good signs anywhere. However, made it without getting lost even once. Was happy to notice that my hotel was right across the street from the convention hotel. When I had checked the address from a map it had looked like I might have to go around a little but luckily that wasn\u2019t the case.

My room was pretty small but it wasn\u2019t like I really needed much. The following days proved very well that I didn\u2019t actually need anything special in the room. Took some things out of the luggage and hung them up before going to explore the surroundings a little. I knew I had a few hours before the registration was supposed to start. However, right in the middle of my walk it began to rain a little so I escaped to sit in the lobby of the actual convention hotel since I knew I was supposed to meet another Finnish girl there at some point.

Was sitting there and pretty much doing nothing when I saw the first familiar face. It was <\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span>. We had met when I was in LA to see Gale in Orpheus Descending. We sat there talking about random stuff. A while later the Finnish girl I was supposed to meet arrived as well.

\"Convention

After a while we moved to stand in the queue that was already forming for the registration. At this point it was about 12:50 and the registration was supposed to start at 13:00. In the queue I met some more people who\u2019s names were familiar from LJ, <\/a>galeandrandy<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>bigj52<\/b><\/a><\/span>. It was finally nice to connect faces to those names.

For quite a while the queue didn\u2019t go anywhere. When it finally started moving about 13:15, it did so veeeeeeeeeery slowly. There had been only about 20-30 people in front of us in the beginning but it took forever for us to be even close to the registration point. And even when we were the first in line, it still took a while before it was my turn. That was also the moment when I found out that actually with my Loft ticket I could have just passed the whole queue. No one had told me that. Wasn\u2019t much use then anymore. Also it had been nice talking with people so I didn\u2019t actually mind. If I had just been standing there by myself, I would have cared more.

Around 14:15 I was finally admitted to get my ticket in order. First they told me that everything was alright and I just needed my badge and that would include everything. However, I wasn\u2019t that trusting and wanted to see what extras they actually had for me since the list I had printed out of their ticketing system looked weird. Had to wait for a while for the guy who handled that side of things to be free. Couldn\u2019t believe they only had one computer and one person available to check the swaps and extras. I guess that was the reason why the queue went so slowly. He gave me a list of things I had and we went through it together. In the end I noticed that there was in deed a few things missing. I showed them my email exchange with Elke which showed what stuff I was supposed to have. They added the missing stuff and printed me another badge.

Then I tried to sort out the merchandise I had bought before hand. I had reserved a teddy bear as well as a T-shirt and agreed that I would pay for them with one of the photo shoots I was supposed to have with Gale. The staff there had no idea what I was talking about. I had already seen Elke once before and introduced myself to her so I decided to look for her again to get things sorted since I was pretty sure she would at least remember what we had agreed. Found her and got the info that she had my stuff put aside somewhere and would get them in a while. Was happy with that.

Thought that everything was now clear and just walked around. Happened upon <\/a>galeandrandy<\/b><\/a><\/span> again and talked about random stuff once more. Then she started asking if my envelope had included all the tickets I was supposed to have. I was all \"What envelope?\" It came out that they were supposed to give me an envelope that would have all the tickets I\u2019d need to get the extras I had paid for. The registration people had implied that I just needed my badge. So back to the registration I went. Took me a while to get them to understand what I wanted. Got to talk to Elke and she made sure I got my envelope. Quickly went through the contents and noticed that a few tickets were missing. They were obviously the ones that had been missing from my badge as well. Got those sorted and then also received the merchandise I had reserved at the same time.

\"The
\"The
Where're you headed
Nowhere special
I can change that<\/i>

Altogether it took me 2\u00bd hours to get everything sorted out from the moment I joined the queue to the moment when I actually had everything I had paid for. Wasn\u2019t feeling too happy at that moment. It did seem they had some pretty serious technical issues and only one person who actually knew how to use the ticketing system. *facepalm* When I looked at the queue that was still there I had a feeling there was no way they were going to get through them all by the time the registration was supposed to end. Felt sorry for the people who were at the back of the queue.

Made plans to see a few people a bit later at the hotel and escaped to eat something and then to have a rest in my own hotel. Had to wake up way too early so was feeling a bit tired. Knew there was a long evening ahead so wanted to be well rested. Ate in the restaurant next to my hotel and had a few beers. Those beers helped to calm me down after the ordeal that had been the registration.

My plans to rest didn\u2019t work out too well. Was feeling too restless so just ended up rolling in the bed but at least I was laying down and kept my eyes closed. About an hour before I was supposed to meet my friends, I started to get ready. Had some nice clothes planned for the evening.

When I was ready I made my way back to the convention hotel. Did get some weird looks on the way from the people I passed. And also some comments shouted after me but since I don\u2019t speak German, don\u2019t know what it was. I choose to believe that it was something positive *g*

From the convention hotel we took a cab to the club together with <\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span> and that other Finnish girl where the first night\u2019s party was supposed to be held. There was already some queue outside the place when we got there. Joined the end of the queue and began to wait what was going to happen. Some time later they told all Loft ticket holders to move to the head of the queue. I followed instructions and we formed our own queue. However, when they started to let people in, I noticed we were in the wrong queue anyway. However, that was easy to correct. Inside the club we got black wristbands that gave us entry to the VIP area at the club. We were also handed these cards that had the club\u2019s name on them but no one explained what the cards were for.

\"Queu

We were directed straight to the VIP area and I took a seat. The area wasn\u2019t that big and I wondered how they were going to fit all Loft and Diner ticket holders there. Saw that there was another area which was fenced off and guessed that area would be the one where the guests would be if\/when they showed up.

\"The
The VIP area when it was still empty

Slowly the place filled out. The music was playing really loud and it was difficult to talk with people. When I wondered about the card we had been given someone friendly explained to me that I was supposed to use the card to pay for my drinks and then on my way out to settle the tab. The bars didn\u2019t accept cash at all. I was told that it was quite a normal custom in Germany.

\"My
My Friday ensamble

A while later I heard by accident that the Loft ticket holders would actually be let into the other VIP area in a while after they had some more staff there to organize things. At that point I was told that was going to happen in about 30 minutes. After 40 minutes had passed, I moved to stand close to that area so that as soon as we were let in I could go and reserve myself a good seat. In the spirit of the convention was drinking JB. Did try to order for a Cosmopolitan but they didn\u2019t have the ingredients. Found that really weird since I would have imagined they would have been told that Cosmos could be a pretty popular drink that evening.

Finally we were let into the other VIP area. Got a nice seat where I had a good view to the stage. Then we just sat there and tried to talk. It was of course quite difficult with the music being so loud. After what felt like an eternity there was loud cheering heard and it was quite easy to guess what was happening. The guests had finally arrived. Can\u2019t remember the order they came in but they all got really loud cheers when they walked in. Since we were standing in the VIP area where they were lead, we got a pretty good view of them all. Scott came and shook hands with us which was nice. A while later Robert followed suit. The others mainly just waived generally to everyone. The last one to arrive a few minutes later than everyone else was Sharon Gless. She got a huge cheer as well and she looked quite surprised by the reception. She obviously hadn\u2019t known to expect it. She also said hello to some people.

Unfortunately the guests arriving caused a small chaos at the VIP area as well as outside it. Everyone was snapping pictures like crazy. And way too close to the guests sometimes. I saw a few times when someone snapped a picture of Randy so close to his face that he was obviously blinded by the flash and his face showed his displeasure about what was going on. I admit that I had my camera out as well when I noticed that they weren\u2019t telling people to not take photos but I snapped my pictures from a distance and didn\u2019t shove cameras right at their faces. However, most people didn\u2019t have the same thoughts. Some of the guests were practically dragged from photo to photo with different people. In the end I did snap a few pictures of the guests from afar but didn\u2019t even try to get closer since I was afraid of being trampled by the crazies that were surrounding especially Randy. I\u2019m sorry that I\u2019m being a bit mean here but some people really did forget all their manners when the guests arrived. Also it scares me to think what the craziness would have been like if Gale had been there. Somehow I fear it would have been many times worse. Scott, Peter and Robert went along the VIP area for a while and tried to say hello to as many people as possible, also in the other areas.

Some pics I snapped from distance of the guests arriving
\"Scott,
\"Thea\"
\"Peter\"

When Sharon wandered into our direction I encouraged my mind to go and talk with her a little. My intention was to tell her how bummed I was that I had just missed her play in London last year. However, with the music being so loud in the club she misheard me and thought I had said I had been in to see the play. Decided no to correct her. She mentioned they might be doing a movie based on the play which would be great. She did mention something about possibly having to do nudity if they go through with the movie idea. Asked her to pose for a picture with me as well since it seemed you were allowed to do that after all since none of the staff were telling people not to.

\"Sharon
Me with Sharon

Not long after that we were told that they were going to make a small area of the VIP area reserved just for the guests and staff and we needed to move out of that area. It wasn\u2019t said aloud but I have a feeling that we were removed from the area because the guests weren\u2019t given a seconds peace with all the people mobbing them, taking pics and asking them to pose for them. If people had been a bit calmer about it, it could have been that we would have been allowed to stay in that area and get to interact with the guests peacefully. Unfortunately, that move meant that we actually had worse view to the stage and the guests than the \"commoners\" who had the lower tickets. Also since I had hung back because I didn\u2019t want to mob the guests the same way as some people were doing, I didn\u2019t get to interact with them much that night. I can of course be wrong with my guess but still I do feel like blaming the people who mobbed the guests for them being separated to their own small area.

Then the show started but no one was actually watching it since they just kept snapping pics of the guests even after they were told to turn around towards the stage. Some people obviously thought the rules weren\u2019t for them *g* I did try to see what was going on on the stage but without much success.

It was nice watching the guests interacting with each other. Peter, Scott and Robert were obviously enjoying themselves and they kept dancing around. Of course made people to snap even more pictures of them and ignore the show that was going on. Since we had already been thrown out of the area, I snapped a few candid photos of the guests as well.

\"Randy\"
\"Scott
\"Robert\"
\"Randy
\"Scott\"
\"Peter\"
\"Harris\"

Sharon and Hal left pretty quickly. I don\u2019t think Hal let go of his girlfriend\u2019s (wive\u2019s?) hand the whole time he was there. Every time he moved somewhere he pulled her with him. Randy was mainly sitting around and talking with the pretty boys from the staff. Harris did interact with people but didn\u2019t come close to the area where we were so didn\u2019t get to talk to him.

There were several different acts on stage. One of them was a magician who managed to rope Scott into his show. He took Scott\u2019s coat and pretended to burn holes to it with a cigarette. Scott did look slightly worried at times. Then at one point he was asked to perform a magic blow. Of course the magician had meant that Scott should blow at his direction to pretend to put down the cigarette. Instead of doing that, however, Scott got on his knees in front of Peter who just leaned back and pushed his crotch closer. People went crazy over that. Cue a lot of cheering.

One by one the guests started leaving. I think Michelle and Thea were the next ones to leave. Scott, Peter and Robert followed them a while later. Harris and Randy stayed behind. They actually ended up staying longer than I had stamina for. We knew that we had an early wake up the following morning so at some point we called it a night with <\/a>wren_kt7oz<\/b><\/a><\/span> and headed towards the hotel with a cab. I made the small walk from the convention hotel to my own hotel and almost immediately went to bed. However, it did take me a while to fall asleep.

End note: Part of me understands that everyone wanted to talk with the guests when they finally showed up. However, I do feel it did ruin some of it for us since they then had their own area and didn\u2019t interact as much anymore. It might have been good if eg. the Loft tickets would have had a small M&G with the guests before the party so that they could have gotten the first squee out of themselves and might have behaved better towards the guests when they got to the club. Of course can\u2019t know for certain but my experiences the following night support this thought. My opinion might be an unpopular one but I have the right to have it.

Also a small comment about the party itself. It was called a Pub night but it was much closer to a Club night. When the program said Pub night I sort of expected something on the lines of what the performances in Joe\u2019s Pub have been. This was just club music and then some performances thrown there to mix things up a little. I definitely wasn\u2019t wearing my dancing shoes and by the end of the evening my feet were killing me. Ended up sitting on top of the seats at the VIP area since there were no other places to sit in where you could still have a view of the show.

Saturday<\/a>
<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/532847.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","rise'n'shine"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/494772.html","pubDate":"Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:14:08 GMT","title":"T3: Rise of the Nerds","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/494772.html","description":"Doing things a bit differently this time around. It seems that every single time I start writing convention reports, they end up these huge epic posts that no one has energy to read. *g* Or actually right now I don't unfortunately have time to write. So I'm doing highlights per guest and starting with Thomas Dekker. Even if this was supposed to just be highlights, it got quite long anyway. *g*

General note. Had a blast. Saw a lot of old friends, met some new people.

There are pictures. Please don't repost without asking first. Also credit is appreciated.



T3: Rise of the Nerds - Thomas

Was seated way back during the opening ceremony so my pictures came out really blurry. Or it is also possible I don't know how to use my camera. *g* Thomas said a few words about being happy to be there, hoping to see some familiar faces from the previous year when he was there last as well as meeting some new people.

The opening ceremony was followed by a meet & greet for the Gold Pass holders. I was lucky to have an empty chair beside me when Thomas came to our table so he sat beside me. Some of what was being talked has completely escaped me. Thomas did ask us where we were from and when I told him I was from Finland he told he had met some other people from Finland as well which surprised me since I wasn't aware of them. Oh well, there were around 300 people in the convention. Can't really know everyone. What I do remember is that he told us the basic idea behind the series. He also said that he's really excited about The Secret Circle and that they begin filming in a few weeks. There was some talk about the pilot and how it had already been picked up. When I said I had seen the six minute preview and how I had liked what I had seen, he said that he felt the pilot was more cheesy than what the pilot is really like. I think that sounded really promising.

While Thomas was talking about TSC I noticed that he kept referring to his character being a witch. I asked him about that and why he didn't use the word \"warlock\" which I think is commonly used for male witches. He said he wasn't exactly sure about that but that everyone was referred as a witch on the show so he used that as well.

Saturday morning I had my photo taken with Thomas. Asked for a huggy-photo and got one. Not too happy with the picture but I'm not happy with most of my photos, so there. *g*

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On Saturday afternoon Thomas had a solo talk. Most questions were around Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I've watched the series but unfortunately can't remember much about it. Should have rewatched before the convention. There were also some questions about the movies Thomas has made and his other projects. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to see those.

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Someone got up and asked about TSC and Thomas again repeated the basic outline of the series, the same he had told us the previous night during the meet & greet.

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A while later I got up and asked Thomas if he had read the books the series was based on and he told me that he hadn't but that he had bought them and was planning on reading them at some point. He just didn't want to influence his character in the pilot by how he was portrayed in the book. I did mention that there are quite a few differences in the book compared to what I've seen in the preview. One of the examples I used was that there are 12 members in the circle in the book but only six in the series. He gave a bit enigmatic response to that which was basically that there were just six members as far as we knew but that things could change. Don't know what to think about that. *g*


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In the middle of the talk a member of the staff from the organizer's side handed Thomas an email. It seemed Lena Headey had sent him an email telling him to tell us a story from the set of T:TSCC. He called it \"The crotch story\". He explained that sometimes in the scenes where his and Lena's characters were filmed driving, the only way for them to be in contact with the film crew was through a walkie talkie. Thomas said that he usually kept it between his legs so that it was on hand if needed. However, this one time he had placed it into a cupholder between them. However, Lena didn't notice this and without looking she started to reach for the walkie talkie. You can figure out the rest. Thomas had us howling with laughter with that story.

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In the evening it was time for autographs. I was on a steward shift during the autograph session but when it started to slow down, I was given permission to go and get my autographs as well. I noticed Thomas had no queue so I got straight to him. I do actually suspect he was just about to leave but managed to catch him before that. I'd been given a poster of the event which I got all the guests to sign. I had also purchased a 10x8 of Thomas for him to sign. As an afterthought, I had also paid for one extra autograph so that I could get my TSC book signed by him as well. He seemed to like the fact that I had the book with me. Unfortunately before I could say anything, he was already signing the cover. I had planned to have him sign the inside leaf since it would be easier to protect it then. Now I'm afraid the autograph is going to rub off. Have to come up with something to protect it.

Then there was an awkward moment for me when I realized I had a bookmark featuring Gale Harold marking my place in the book. However, Thomas didn't seem to mind it. He said that Gale was something else and that he had never met someone similar. He also said something about Gale being a really nice guy. I told him I had met Gale last year in LA while he was doing theater and he asked which play it had been. When I told him he said he had a feeling Gale had talked about doing that play at some point. Did let it slip that I had seen the play three times which seemed to surprise Thomas. Since there wasn't anyone after me queuing I could talk with him in peace. I said something about really waiting for the premier in September. When I mentioned the date he said that I probably knew better than him since he only knew it was in September. I also told him I'm taking part in a book club where we are reading the books before the series starts and discussing them. He told me I was probably the most enthusiastic person he had met this far in regards to TSC. Don't know if that's a good thing or not. *g* At that point someone else came to get his autograph so I needed to move on. Really enjoyed talking with him.

On Saturday evening they showed us some videos. One of the videos shown was a music video Thomas had made some years ago. It took me a while to realize it was him there. The video is called Psyanotic. It was quite interesting. *g*



On Sunday morning I was stewarding during the photo session but got a chance to take another picture with Thomas. When I walked to him on my turn he was already putting his arm on my shoulders when I requested for a back-to-back-photo. He seemed surprised by that. I don't think anyone else had requested one before from him. He did comment something about it being different. So we settled there with our backs against each other and got the photo taken. When the photographer was done, Thomas still commented that he really liked the idea and that he would have to remember it in the future and use it. This time around I'm actually quite happy with the picture. I like Thomas' expression on the pic.

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In the afternoon there was again a talk. This time around Thomas was doing a talk together with Stephanie Jacobsen who was also on T:TSCC. There were quite a few questions about that series again as well as some of their other projects. Most of it has escaped my mind. Someone did tell him that we had watched his music video the previous night and he told us some things about doing it. They had to have hundreds of blacklight lamps to get the paint to glow properly. I think Thomas was around 16 when he made the video. The paint he gets over himself is normal housepaint which dried really quickly so he needed to be hosed down quickly after finishing filming. The other guys in the video are twins and I think Thomas said he had just had lunch with them a few days earlier. Also one of the first questions were about his tattoos and he explained them all and also showed some of them. He refused to show all of them *g*

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Tried to come up with a TSC question but failing that I just got up to ask a general wacky question. I asked them what they would do if they could be the ruler of the world for a day. Thomas had no answer for me first so Stephanie said that she would make a decree that she would be the ruler of the world for a longer time. Thomas' reaction to that was that he should have thought of that. After some thinking he decided that he would send this huge amount of minions to find him all these obscure items that were lost or didn't really even exist. The necklace from the movie Titanic was mentioned.

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In the evening it was again autographs. I wanted to get Thomas to sign our picture together so bought one more extra autograph for that. I was also given a funny photo of the all the guests together that I could get signed as well if I so wished. When I got to Thomas I handed first the cast photo for him to sign and then our photo together. He gave it a look and said that it had come out alright and then signed it. I thanked him for coming and said that I hoped I'd see him again some day and brought up the possibility of a TSC convention. He said that if the series did well, he might well be back and bring the whole cast with him. I do have to wonder if that would include Gale. Didn't dare to say anything about that.

A bit later I went outside with a few friends while they had a smoke and saw Thomas there talking on the phone about something. When he was finished with the call he said that he was trying to organize a surprise for us for the closing ceremony later that night. That sounded promising.

In the closing ceremony Thomas told us that he had a video that he had made together with Lena Headey who was with him on T:TSCC. It was quite amusing video with Lena jumping around in an orange jumpsuit. They had made the video during the last days of filming T:TSCC. He did suspect Lena might kill him for showing it to us.

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In conclusion, really enjoyed meeting Thomas. He was very friendly and seemed to like talking about all his projects. Would love to see him again some day. Maybe after TSC starts he might do another appearance somewhere.

Then a proof of my weird mind. I find it interesting that the two series he has done have such similar abbreviations, T:TSCC and TSC. Yes, I'm weird. *g*

Then a standard disclaimer. I'm happy to share my experiences and photos. However, if you do share any bits and pieces somewhere else, I'd appreciate if you'd tell me what and where. Also credit would be muchly appreciated.


<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/494772.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","the secret circle","thomas dekker"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/457782.html","pubDate":"Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:21:10 GMT","title":"Planet Babylon - Convention report part 3","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/457782.html","description":"So here's the third and final part of my convention report from Planet Babylon

Advance warning. This part includes some bitching about the organizational side of the convention. Please feel free to skip those parts. I do hope you don\u2019t think I\u2019m a total bitch. These are just my thoughts. They were maybe partly agreed by at least some of the people I was there with but I\u2019m not speaking for anyone else than for myself.

Another advance warning. There are many photos in this post. I couldn't decide which ones to include so I put quite a few there. It was impossible to choose! It's not my fault! I put the blame completely on Mr. Randy Harrison...




Didn\u2019t feel too rested in the morning. I had again kept waking up during the night and after six couldn\u2019t really sleep at all. Still I knew I again had a fun day ahead of me so that gave me energy. We weren\u2019t really in a hurry that morning since there were just L-Word panels on in the morning. We only needed to be there for the photoshoot with Randy. I had spent my waking hours in the morning wondering what kind of photos to take with Randy that day. There were three different shots I wanted to do but I knew that at least one of them was impossible to do since I suspected I couldn\u2019t keep a straight face. Yeah, there might have been better things to do with my time than wonder about photoshoots (like sleeping) but that is what I used my time on.

After waking up I tried to prepare myself for the day. My breakfast consisted of some snacks I had bought the previous day since my stomach was slightly in knots again. Don\u2019t really know why since Randy had proven really nice and easy to talk to. Still didn\u2019t feel like eating anything proper. I pondered for a while which shirt to wear from the ones I had with me. In the end I went with a shirt that said \u201cI\u2019m a fuckin\u2019 princess\u201d. I joked to <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> about her dinner with the guests the previous night. Can\u2019t remember much what she said but she did say that she had sat right across from Randy at the dinner and that the tables had been really small so that their hands had almost touched. She also said that she had asked for Randy\u2019s favorite color and that it\u2019s blue. *g*

We were there slightly later than usual and the doors had already been opened so we could just walk straight in. We took seats at the tables they had outside the hall and just sat there spending time. When we saw that the boutique, where they sold the extra photoshoots and autographs, had opened, we went to buy our stuff for that day. I had done some careful counting of finances and noticed that if I wanted I could well afford two photoshoots with Randy so that\u2019s what I did. I also bought and autograph with him since I wanted to maximize the time spent with him.

Then we just sat there and spent our time waiting for the photoshoot to start. I had bought a birthday card for Randy, since his birthday was coming up, and was trying to come up with something intelligent to write there. It was proving to be surprisingly difficult. Luckily I wasn\u2019t the only one who had troubles with that. I kept giving the practice text I had written for others to read to get their opinion on it. Finally I started to write it actually on the card. Only managed to do one mistake. Luckily that was quite easy to correct. And with my handwriting one more smudge there wasn\u2019t really going to matter. I did think starting the card by wishing him happy birthday in Finnish was a nice touch.

Finally they announced photoshoots with Randy. The Italian part of our group joined the queue first and we remained behind to watch their stuff. I knew they were planning on doing a group shot with Randy. When I saw them getting closer I moved to stand so that I could see them when they got that shot. It cracked me up when I saw them all doing the \"shark\" impression with Randy.

When they came back from their photoshoot it was time for us others to join the queue. I was still wondering which photos to take with him. Too bad the queue went quite fast so it was decision time for me. I handed in my photoshoot tickets and walked to Randy. He said his \"Hello again\" to me and I replied. Then I asked if we could take a \"huggy\" photo this time around. He said \"sure\" and I wrapped my arms around his waist. He had his other hand on my arm and another around my shoulders. I could have stayed there longer too. The picture is scanned below.

Next he said thank you and obviously expected me to leave but I told him that I still had another shot and asked if we could do one back to back. He seemed alright with that and we took that picture. I said thanks but then also asked if I could still ask him something. He nodded and leaned towards me to hear me better. Nervewrecking anyone! I asked if he had had any input in the drawings Justin had done in the series. He said no and that he had just done some of the coloring and retracing so that it looked like he had done it. I still asked him if he could draw at all. He gave a small laugh and said that not really. At that point I was ready to take my leave but when I said my thanks and turned to leave, the photographer told us that he wanted to take another shot of the back to back picture, just in case. I was more than happy to go through with that, so we again posed. I did change my pose a little, though. Without me knowing Randy did the exactly same thing. *g* I again said my thanks (for the third time, or something *g*) and walked back to my friends.

There were just some things in French going on so we decided to have our lunch break at that point so that we would be back early for the next Q&A that was going to have Randy in it. We went for lunch in two different groups. When we got back to the convention center there was already some queue in front of it but since it obviously was the custom there, I was rude and walked almost to the front of the queue where I could see some of my friends standing. *g* When in France, do like the French do. (Sorry, was that bitchy?) So there we stood and waited for them to open the doors. What had started as a semi-neat queue soon transformed into this crowd of people who were all jockeying for the best position to get in from the doors as soon as they opened. There was a certain amount of restlessness in the air when the time of the Q&A starting came and passed. I really started hoping that they wouldn\u2019t cut the Q&A short again just because they couldn\u2019t keep into the schedule.

Finally the doors opened and people ran to the hall to get their seats. I again took seats from the third row on the right, where I had sat before too. I thought those seats were pretty good since that was the side where the Q&As were held.

After some waiting they again started with a dance performance. It was obviously some reaaaaaaally popular song in French since people went crazy and clapped and sang along. For us non-French speakers it didn\u2019t mean anything and we just mainly sat there quietly. I do think the people on stage noticed that most of us weren\u2019t clapping or anything. Did feel slightly bad about that but I was still feeling bitchy. You probably think I\u2019m a horrible person but the behavior of some of the people when queuing for the hall was really appalling. They thought it was their exclusive right to reserve the seats from the first row and were quite obnoxious about it. So my mood wasn\u2019t the best one. I just hoped Randy would cure it all with his loveliness. He didn\u2019t let me down.

After the dance performance there was a small break before the Q&A started. At that point we were around 40 minutes late of the schedule. I really did hope they would stretch the schedule from the other end too as much. I know that in many conventions things don\u2019t start in time and it\u2019s actually an ongoing joke in some circles that there\u2019s this thing called SCT (Standard Convention Time) that doesn\u2019t follow any real time zones. But in those cases, if things start late, they also run later. In this convention I got the feeling that even if things started late, they still finished on time, which of course cut our time to see the actors on stage. I sort of found this funny since it was the actors at least I had paid to come and see there, not all the side programs the organizers had come up with. While I did appreciate the effort they put to those shows and all, I\u2019d still preferred to have more time with the actors on stage.

Anyway, back to the Q&A. Before they allowed the actors on stage, they again talked about the \"wild cards\" and really encouraged people to try and come up with some questions that would force the actors to use them. Again something I found weird. I\u2019m sorry to say, but if there\u2019s an actor I want to ask questions from on stage for around 30 minutes a day, of which time quite a lot goes to translating questions and answers back and forth, I want to ask proper questions that I really want an answer to and not some joke questions. I\u2019m not saying the translating is a bad thing since I do understand that not everyone speaks English and we were in France after all. And of course if they didn\u2019t do the translations, we non-French speakers would have been in trouble too. I just think they could have kind of allowed more time for the Q&As since they didn\u2019t have time for so many questions. Before the Q&A started the organizers had told us that they had been in some cons in the UK and there the joke questions had been very popular and funny. Yes, I\u2019ve been to several Torchwood conventions myself where there\u2019s been all kinds of weird questions but in those you get all the actors on stage twice every day, so there\u2019s time for serious questions and then during the final panel with all the actors together, people usually go at least slightly crazy. That\u2019s the spirit of those conventions. The atmosphere in this convention was completely different and as said before every actor was on stage only once per day and only for a short time.

Okay, now I\u2019m done with ranting and can actually continue talking about the Q&A. The questions and answers have again been taken from <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>
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And then I started to play with my zoom so close-ups of Randy *g*

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- Which character from QaF is his favourite? Which character would he have liked to play if he couldn't be Justin? Would he want to be Brian?<\/i> Randy said that his favourite character is Lindsay, that he would have liked to play Debbie and that he wouldn't want to play Brian because he didn't want the responsibility of carrying the show on his shoulders, and because Brian had too much sex.

- Could he mimic Brian throwing water all over himself?<\/i> First Randy said that he couldn\u2019t do it because he didn\u2019t want to get his clothes wet. I\u2019m thinking in my mind, it\u2019s not like Brian had any clothes on in that scene, so if you would be doing it right, you know\u2026In the end Randy picked up a vaporizer, asked, \"What was the line there? Something about 'coming\/going, going\/coming'...\" and vaporized his face with the water.

Then became the embarrassing portion of the Q&A. Some people really took into heart what the presenters had said about trying to get the actors to use the \u201cwild cards\u201d. Cue them asking a question in French, about 80% of the people cracking up, the actors looking quite confused, the presenters cracking up as well but finally getting the translation out, followed by the actors looking even more confused and least me going \"WTF?!? What was so funny about that?\" Then the actors gave uneasy answers. This same pattern was repeated for the next three questions.

- Was he wearing panties or a thong?<\/i> Randy was not happy. But he didn't use the \"wild card\" and just deadpanned, \"Thong.\"
-What color were they?\u201d<\/i> I don\u2019t think Randy gave an answer to this. Or at least I didn\u2019t hear it.

- Pajamas or naked skin?<\/i> Randy: \"It depends on the season.\"

<\/a> Randy\u2019s reaction to the above mentioned questions

Then it was back to more normal questions. I\u2019d had my hand up from the beginning since I had a few questions in my mind, I wanted to ask. David, who was picking up the people, who got to ask questions, was very fluently ignoring me, since a few times I was the only one with my hand up and he just kept on looking around, until someone else raised their hand. Maybe he guessed I wasn\u2019t going to go with their line of stupid questions. *g* However, finally he had to give me my turn.

- If he could choose three former castmates to work with again, who would he choose?<\/i> Randy said, \"I'd want Peter as a director, Michelle as a producer, and Gale as a writer.\"

- Is Gale a good kisser?<\/i> Randy said, \"I can't tell because I never kissed him in RL. It was all staged. It was for show.\" And then Rachel said that when you have to kiss someone on screen, you don't think about how soft her\/his lips are or if he\/she is a good kisser, you just think, \"Did the camera get this? Is the angle right?\" That was interesting.

- Is he in contact with his former castmates?<\/i> Randy's answer is always the same every time: he sees them whenever he's in LA or they come to NY.
Trivia: Yaele translating called Randy \"she\" and then she immediately apologized. Randy said, \"Oh, don't worry. I don't mind.\"

- Was he the one drawing Justin's pictures?<\/i> (A\/N: Funny that someone decided to ask the exact same question I had asked him at the photoshoot) Randy said no, he only colored them or retraced them to make it look like he was.

- Which TV character past or present would he like to be?<\/i> Randy: \"Dorothy, from 'Golden Girls.' She was the tall one, with the deep voice.\"

- Then he was asked about the audition process for QaF<\/i> and the answer was the same as ever but he added a couple of things that made us laugh so much! First he said that at the time he was still represented by a children\u2019s agent since he looked like he was about twelve. He said that he was flown in twice to audition and on the first time he had to walk from his hotel to where they held the audition. He also said that when he was going for the first audition, he didn\u2019t really know much about the series and wasn\u2019t certain he wanted to do it. He just treated the trip as a free ride to LA since he had been trying to make up his mind whether he wanted to live in LA or NY and had been collecting money to make the trip to LA but now he got it for free. He said that on the second time he auditioned with a few different candidates for the role of Brian. One of them had been a very muscular possible!Brian and that he remembers how he almost couldn't move! He even made an impression of a very bulky guy!!! And then he said that, since he looked so young, Peter was always asking him, \"Did you remember to ask your parents for permission to be here?\" to which Randy replied, \"Nope, I'm actually 75 years old!\" He finished with saying that when he got on the plane to fly back to NY the second time, he knew he had the role.

- What would the newspaper headline for his life say at the moment?<\/i> (again me, possibly a bit stupid question) Randy: \"Randy Harrison. Nowhere to be found.\" Which was... unsettling. And kinda sad. Or could also be taken to mean that he loves his privacy and doesn\u2019t enjoy being in the public eye that much.

- Which causes does he support?<\/i> Randy said gay rights. He said he doesn't go there as Randy Harrison of QaF, though, but just as himself and that's why he never speaks publicy.

- Upcoming projects?<\/i> Randy says he doesn't know. He's going to stay in Europe and when he'll be back in NY he'll audition and hopefully he'll be hired.

More close-ups of Randy!!!!

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In the name of equality, one pic of Rachel

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And then again a few more of Randy

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That was then all for the Q&A. The actors left the stage and people got up from their chairs to clap. Next up where the autographs but since I guessed there was going to be a long queue, I remained behind in the hall to see if anything was happening. They started playing some game where you had to guess the season and episode of the screenshot they showed. They were doing screenshots from both QaF and the L-Word. I did try my luck with a few of the QaF ones. I did get the season right usually but the episodes were slightly more difficult. When that ended I made my way towards the autograph queue. I saw there were quite a few people there but I decided to join the end of the queue anyway. After I had stayed there for a while I suddenly decided that I wanted to get one more autograph from Randy. I left my things with <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> and ran to buy one more autograph ticket. To my disappointment we had been told that the pictures we had taken that day wouldn\u2019t be back in time for the autographs since there had been some trouble with them. I had thought about getting either the huggy or the back-to-back picture autographed but had to go with another picture instead.

While in the queue I went through in my head things I wanted to say to him this time around. I knew it was going to be my last chance to talk to him so I wanted to be sure I got everything said, that I wanted. Way too quickly it was my turn and I walked towards him. I heard him calling me by my name which made me feel all fluttery inside. I know I have a short and easy to remember name and I had been pestering him more than enough during the weekend, but it was still nice he remembered my name.

I handed the two autograph cards to his PA and then the promopicture of him as well as a picture of us together to Randy. He began signing the photo of us together first. I told him that I felt like I should apologize for my T-shirt since it was sort of a rude one. He gave me this really lovely smile and said that he didn\u2019t think it was rude at all. I then said something about swearwords in it and he still disagreed with me. At that point he was already beginning to sign the promopicture. I watched amazed when he wrote the following text on it. \"Pia, you ARE a fuckin\u2019 princess\" (scanned below). I had no idea what to say about that and I just stood there with this stupid smile on my face. Then I shook myself and said to him that I knew it was his birthday the next day and that I had a card for him. I handed the card to him and he gave it a cursory look but didn\u2019t start reading it. I did mention that I had written Happy Birthday on the card in Finnish, at which point he did look at the text and stared at the words. He then asked me how to say it and I told him. He looked at me this weird look on his face and asked me to repeat it slower. I did and he tried to copy me, not with much success. I know the Finnish language is really difficult and it was amusing hearing him try to copy me. He did get it pretty close in the end. Then I told him that since I knew that he probably had already quite a lot of stuff to take with him, I hadn\u2019t bought him any present. He said okay and looked at me a bit like he was thinking \u201cand you are telling me this why?\u201d I quickly continued that instead of the present I\u2019d rather like to donate the money I would have spent on his birthday present to some charity of his choosing in his name. He looked quite pleased by that. I then asked him which organization that would be and he gave me a name. He continued to say that it was a really nice thought from me and that he really appreaciated it. Then he again gave me a smile. The PA started to look like she wished I would already be gone but I still encouraged my mind and asked if I could still give him a birthday hug and that I hoped I wasn\u2019t overstepping any limits. He said sure and got up from his chair and leaned over the table to hug me. I wished him Happy Birthday in English while I hugged him. I then thanked him and once more said the Happy Birthday in Finnish. He said something on the lines of \"Um, yeah, that\" and smiled.


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I\u2019m glad I managed to get down the stairs without falling down to meet my friends who were waiting for me. I showed the autograph in the photoshoot to everyone and got quite excited reactions from people. I still couldn\u2019t believe he had actually written that on the picture but I totally treasured it.

Next there was some time for us to just hang around before the final panel with the guests was starting. I managed to buy this poster they\u2019d had hanging on the walls. It was a picture of the cast from season 4 and I\u2019d been craving the poster for the whole weekend. Me and my friends got the final three posters they had for sale. Earlier we had been told that they wouldn\u2019t be selling them but possibly they would be able to give a few of them to us. I guess they decided to make some money out of them after all.

Then it was time for the closing ceremony with the guests. I also knew there was going to be the dancing routine they had been practicing the whole weekend. I had made up my mind that I wasn\u2019t going to be doing any dancing but when I got to the hall I noticed that you weren\u2019t allowed to on the side where I usually sat. That area was completely off limits. You were supposed to be in the middle area if you were dancing and at the far left side if you weren\u2019t doing the dancing. Since I wanted to get my final photos of the guests I resigned myself staying on the stairs next to the middle area and doing the dancing routine. I just hoped I wouldn\u2019t mess it up too badly since I hadn\u2019t been there for any of the rehearsals. I had conveniently always been somewhere else. When we had all take our places they started to play the music with quiet volume and went through the routine one more time. I found out that it was relatively easy to follow and there weren\u2019t any too complicated moves so I thought I might be able to do it. And of course it wasn\u2019t like anyone was going to notice if there was one person among a few hundred that didn\u2019t have a clue what she was doing.

After the final rehearsal they told us to take our places, which meant that we were all standing with our backs to the stage. The curtains were closed so that the guests wouldn\u2019t see us when they got on stage. We could hear them walking across the stage. I did wonder in my head about what they were thinking when they got on stage and the curtain was still closed since on the previous time it had always been open. We heard them moving around a little. Then someone obviously gave a sign that they were all settled and the curtains were opened. Even if we were supposed to be standing with our backs to the stage I couldn\u2019t resist the temptation of looking over my shoulder. All the guests were sitting there with these confused expressions on their face and trying to see what was going on. It must have looked weird to them to have everyone with their back towards them. Then the music started and we started dancing. After the first moves we turned around so that we were standing with our faces towards them. They still had slightly confused expressions but only after a few moves, Rachel suddenly said something to the others and got up from her chair and started copying us. That got a cheer out of the crowd. She then obviously told the others to get up too and they did. Laurel did seem to be more into it than Randy who just stared for a while before he began to copy to moves too. It was quite hilarious looking when they tried to see what we were doing and copy that. I totally loved Randy\u2019s version of running his hands down his body and then doing this side thing with his hands. To me he looked like a bunny rabbit doing that. *g*

Pics from the closing ceremony

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Here\u2019s the video of the dancing and the guests joining in. It takes a while before the dancing actually starts but just wait patiently or fastforward to 2:45. If you listen the beginning, you can hear the guests arriving on stage.


There\u2019s a bunch of other videos of the convention in YouTube as well. If you haven\u2019t seen them yet and want to check them out, you can find a playlist of the videos here<\/a>. I think most of the videos have been included into that playlist but there can of course be others too.

Anyway, we got the dance routine done and then there was a lot of cheering. When things quieted down all the guests gave their thanks. The organizers also thanked all the crew that had been helping them out. Then they showed this short film one of the organizers had made. It was in French so I didn\u2019t really understand much of it but it was a story of this gay superhero who saves the day and prevents this twink jumping off the roof. Sound familiar to anyone? *g* After that the guests said their goodbyes. There was still a bit over an hour to go before the pictures were going to be ready so we headed out to get something to drink. Some of us ended up in this coffee at the square nearby. I had planned on drinking some coffee because I felt like I needed that. Was quite surprised when they informed us that they didn\u2019t serve coffee after six. I probably stared at him for a while with my mouth hanging open before I managed to say that I\u2019d take ice tea then. The others went with sodas. We did find their policy a bit strange but enjoyed our drinks. While we were sitting there we noticed that this place did serve cosmos and we wondered if we should order those. However, we decided not to and just drank the drinks before heading back to the convention center. We got there right after the pictures had been delivered. I quickly found my pictures from there and noticed that the huggy photo was alright and that they had developed the both pics of me and Randy back-to-back. I sort of got three photos with the price of two. All the pics are scanned below

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So that was that for the convention then and I was feeling all blue. We got our group together for a final group shot outside the convention center and then it was time to say bye to the first member of our group, <\/a>fraserette<\/b><\/a><\/span>. There were hugs all around. After she left we headed again the McD\u2019s for dinner. Our food selection was quite limited during the con, as you can see :D While eating dinner some of us got the idea of going for Cosmos after all in honor of QaF and the convention. We did try to get as many people as possible to join us but in the end there were just four of us. Before we left there were more goodbyes since we didn\u2019t know if we\u2019d see some people from the group anymore the next morning when everyone was heading home.

We headed to the same Caf\u00e9 where we had sat before since we knew they had Cosmos there. We actually ended up sitting in the same table as before and the staff obviously recognized us from before. Of course it had only been like an hour since we had left the place. We ordered our Cosmos and enjoyed them a lot. They did taste quite good, even if they came in a wrong sort of glass. It wasn\u2019t like that affected the taste *g*

After the Cosmos we decided that we definitely needed to drink JB too since that was an essential part of the show too. Too bad the place didn\u2019t have JB on offer. Instead of those we ordered \"Screaming Orgasms\" which we found really funny. (Iz twelve) I\u2019m sure that tiredness had nothing to do with our giddiness. I\u2019m sure the staff rolled their eyes at our antics. Still I do think that the drink was quite appropriate for the show as well.

Photo of the drinks

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After we finished those drinks we decided that we absolutely had to find a place that sold JB and we were certain there had to be such a place. There was a bar next door and that was our next destination. There we found out that they really did sell JB so we ordered four shots. When they were brought to us we quite loudly clinked our glasses and yelled \u201cfor Brian and Justin\u201d. It\u2019s a good thing there weren\u2019t that many other people in the bar.

While we were enjoying our drinks we got the craving for something sweet and ordered chocolate mousse for everyone. What we actually got was a chocolate fondant but who cares. It was delicious anyway. And surprisingly it did go well together with the JB.


Pics of the glasses and desserts


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We did have our own antics and I could see the staff cracking up every once in a while. I guess the last straw was when we heard them playing the song \u201cTotal Eclipse of the Heart\u201d on radio and started singing along while pretending to wave lighters above our heads. Seriously, we only had had the three drinks but I guess the excitement of the weekend and possibly slightly badly slept nights took their toll. We still took a final photo of our wristbands before heading back to the hotel.

Photo of the wristbands

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At the hotel I again kept <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> awake for a while with my stories before giving up and going to bed.

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Tuesday 2.11.2010

Once more I woke around six am and couldn\u2019t sleep after that. A while later the others started waking up too and soon it was time for the worst moment of the trip, people leaving. Our Italian friends were the first once to leave together with <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>ryana82<\/b><\/a><\/span>. We did cause a small commotion in the hotel lobby when we said our goodbyes. I was so sad to see them all go that I got tears into my eyes and got told off by a few people that I would start them going soon too. *g* We did get some amused glances from the hotel staff. We kept telling each other that \"It's ony time\". Don't think anyone who's not familiar with QaF wouldn't know the significance of those words *g*

After they had left I still returned with <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> to her room while she finished her packing. Way too soon it was time for her to go as well and again there were tears. I was left alone in the hotel. I returned to my room to do my packing. Then I dragged my luggage to the lobby and asked if I could leave it there for a few hours. Then I left to explore the city. The weather could have been better but I did have a nice walk around Champs Elysee and the river. When I got hungry I went for lunch into a place called \u201cUnisex\u201d. I totally picked the place out based on the name. Finally had my first real French lunch when I ate some onion soup and had a glass of wine. After lunch I still wandered around for a while before heading back to the hotel to pick up my luggage. I hadn\u2019t noticed that it had gotten a bit later than I thought so when I got to the hotel, I decided that it was better that I took a taxi to the airport even if it would end up costing me quite a lot but at least I wouldn\u2019t miss my flight. If it had taken me the two hours to get to the airport that it took me to get from there to the hotel, I would have been cutting it really close, so I played it safe.

The taxi trip was really something to remember. It was rush hour which made me realize that maybe the taxi wasn\u2019t a good idea after all. The driver was slightly crazy and so were all the other people on the roads. Occasionally I wasn\u2019t entirely sure if I was going to survive the trip with my life intact or without suffering a cardiatic arrest or something similar. However, we got to the airport safely and the trip ended up costing me an arm and a leg bu at least I was there on time. As it came out, I was there a bit too early, since there were no queues anywhere. I managed to drop of my luggage without problem and then made my way towards the gate through the security check. At the gate area I noticed that there was absolutely nothing there. I probably spent the most boring 45 minutes of my life sitting there and waiting for the boarding to start.

Finally the boarding started and we walked into the plane. I was quite surprised to notice that the plane was practically empty. Oh well, at least I got to sit alone on my row. Quite soon after the plane was in the air, I kicked my boots off and put my legs on the seat beside me. I also asked for a pillow and a blanket and proceeded to doze for the most of the trip. Made the trip go faster. At my home airport my luggage luckily came pretty quickly and I could walk out and head for the taxis. I was going to spend the night at my parents\u2019 since it was closer. Got there without problems and went almost straight to bed. It was about midnight after all and I knew I needed to wake up early the next morning and head for work, which really didn\u2019t interest me at all.

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So here\u2019s the ending of my report of my lovely experience at Planet Babylon. Thank you for reading!

Trivia:<\/b> For some reason Randy signed his autographs with just \"Randy\" on the first two days but on the third day he signed \"Randy Harrison\"","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/457782.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","planet babylon","randy harrison"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/457118.html","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:41:20 GMT","title":"Planet Babylon - Convention report part 2","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/457118.html","description":"And here I am with the second part of my convention report. In case you happened to miss the first part, that can be found here<\/a>

Again quite a few photos. I couldn't decide which ones to include so I put quite a few of them into the post. Again clickable for larger and shareable, just tell me if you put them somewhere.

I hope you enjoy!




Slept maybe a bit better than the previous night but still kept waking up every once in a while. We had to wake up quite early since Randy\u2019s Q&A was going to start the day and we wanted to get good seats for ourselves. At least we had managed to correctly adjust our watches to the day light\u2019s saving time and weren\u2019t late. I did spend a few extra minutes in front of the mirror checking for any green spots on my skin. *g*

I again skipped breakfast since I was feeling too jittery for that and just met a few people from our group in the hotel lobby and we walked together to the convention hall. I was wearing my crown from the previous evening and that got a few looks from people we passed. There were quite a few people already waiting for there but we did hope we\u2019d get good seats anyway. Soon we were let in and we again formed a queue outside the actual hall. What did surprise me was that even after the queue was formed people just came from the sides and went past us. Did throw a few comments into air about peoples\u2019 rudeness. I could have maybe sort of understood if it was just one or two people joining their friends but there were people who didn\u2019t know anyone at the front of the line but obviously thought they had some right to plant themselves there. I\u2019m so used to being in conventions where people queue in a sophisticated matter, that this behavior sort of surprised me. Sorry for ranting.

When we were let into the hall we got our seats from the second row on the right side. Not bad seats at all. We had to wait for a while and while we waited <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> talked about how nice it would be if we could get Randy to wish Happy Birthday to <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> since it was her Birthday that day. Since things obviously weren\u2019t starting yet, I went out in search of a staff member I could ask, if there was something they could do. I did manage to find someone I talked to and they told me that I could try and request it at the Q&A. Very happy I went back to the hall.

Things were again started with a dance performance but I just kept waiting for Randy to get on stage. When the dance ended they obviously began to work on showing some video. I waited them to show something with Randy in it and we did get a clip of him doing the King of Babylon dancing scene, with horrible quality and half without sound. I\u2019m sure Randy was very glad they decided to show just that scene since he has said in several occasions that he hated the go-go dancing they made him do. After that clip they started working on showing us some more videos. Since it was only going to be Randy on stage, I expected there to be more clips with him. I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong. They started showing clips from the L-Word, or tried. The sound was missing half the time and they started the same clip over and over again. And then changed to another clip, with which they also had trouble with. I just kept on thinking, let Randy get on stage already, please. We don\u2019t care about clips of L-Word when they are taking time away from us seeing Randy. Finally they managed to show one of the clips fully and when a text about the DVD of the final season of the L-Word now being available I might have said a bit loudly \"Who cares?\" Was feeling slightly bitchy. *g*

So finally they got Randy on stage. I tried to ask about Randy wishing Happy Bday already in the beginning but I was completely ignored. While the Q&A progressed I guessed they had forgotten about their promise after all. Felt slightly disappointed.

First some pictures:

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<\/a> Lipbite!
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Again the questions and answers have been taken from <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a> Randy intently watching the Prom-scene

- They showed a clip from the Pink Posse arc, when Justin puts the gun in Hobbs' mouth. Was Randy ever worried that Justin would go too far? That this journey would break him?<\/i> Randy said that the scene was very intense. He talked about the fact that a few of the writers had lived the time where gays were raided in bars and all that and they wanted to show that. But, Randy also said that it was hard for him to play that because it felt OOC for Justin to react like that because Justin did NOT live how the writers lived, so Randy had to adapt all the writers' frustration to a kid who had different life experience.
Trivia: David, the host, while talking about the Pink Posse called them Pink Pussy.... I have no idea how Randy managed not to laugh in his face!!! We did laugh and Yaele, the translator, told David about his mistake and he was so embarassed!! Randy was grinning like a loon :D LOL

- He was asked if it was difficult to shoot scenes in Babylon with no music<\/i> and he said that it was funny listening to the beat for a few moments and then having to shout and keep moving without it. He said the extra all danced at a different rhythm! LOL


Those were the only questions asked during his Q&A. A lot shorter than on the previous day and they did have quite a few technical difficulties. I did feel that we were robbed a little with them cutting the Q&A short. Okay, the questions and answers were also a bit longer so of course that had its part too but I do feel that the technical difficulties they kept having took some time away from us too. And of course them translating everything all the time.

More pictures!


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After the Q&A it was again time for photoshoots. I had bought an extra photoshoot with Randy so I went to queue for that. I was planning on taking a picture with my crown on. I also got an idea that I could maybe talk with Randy about <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span>\u2019s Birthday there, if they didn\u2019t throw me out, since I knew she was getting her photo taken as well. I did ask a staff member if that was alright and she told me that I could well talk with him and that there was nothing stopping me. Remembering from all the other conventions I\u2019ve done, you certainly aren\u2019t allowed to hold back the photoshoots by talking with the guests but obviously they didn\u2019t have a rule like that here. I made sure I was in the queue before <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span>. When it was my turn at the photo I walked to Randy. He obviously did remember seeing me before and obviously wasn\u2019t prepared to shake my hand again but I gave my hand for him to shake anyway, before I realized that, and it caused a slightly awkward moment. He did say that he liked my shirt that had the text \"I am what I am\" on it. I managed to say thank you but somehow the situation was quite awkward otherwise and wasn\u2019t really sure if I should talk with him first or just take the picture and then talk to him. In the end I went with the picture first. I again had my arm around his waist and he had his around mine. Then I did the talking. I explained that a friend of mine had a Birthday and that it would probably mean a lot to her if Randy could wish her a Happy Birthday when she came to take her picture with him in a while. I promised to stay behind and point her out to Randy. After that I said my thanks but the photographer told me that she wanted to take another shot. I was more than happy to put my arm around Randy\u2019s waist again. Afterwards I thanked him again and walked to the side. I did stay in the area so that I could give him a sign when <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> came. The staff member tried to throw me out a few times but I stubbornly stayed there and explained that I had agreed with Randy that I was going to point someone out to him. Also the security guy tried to throw me out but I was stubborn. And maybe took a small advantage of the situation that they didn\u2019t speak English that well so me speaking rapid English at them and explaining something a lot, made them back off. *g* Finally I saw that <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> was the next one in the queue. I quickly stepped a bit closer to Randy and told him that the Birthday girl was coming. When <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> walked to him Randy did congratulate her and gave her a hug. It obviously made her happy. Of course it would have made me happy too if something like that had happened to me. *g*

After everyone had gotten their picture taken we headed for lunch. We had decided to go the central Paris since there was quite a lot of time before anything interesting was going to happen. The afternoon was going to be started with L-Word stuff and we weren\u2019t that interested in that. In front of the convention place I was introduced to the newly arrived <\/a>contrejourcalie<\/b><\/a><\/span> who was joining us for our lunch expedition. On the way to the metro station I met one more person, <\/a>fraserette<\/b><\/a><\/span>. I remembered commenting on her posts about meeting at the con so I was glad I got the chance to meet her.

The whole group took the metro and we went to eat on Champs Elysee. Okay, just McDonald\u2019s again but at least it was on Champs Elysee. Doesn\u2019t that make it a bit more special? *g* After lunch we walked around for a while before I decided to head back to the convention place with <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> since I wanted to get an autograph from Randy that day too and his autographs were starting soon. The others still stayed in the city a while longer.


<\/a> Our little group!


It took us a bit longer than we thought to reach the convention hall and for a while we were worried that we might miss it but in the end we found out that there was still plenty of time. They were also doing autographs with Rachel and Laurel but we joined Randy\u2019s queue first since that was the most important for us.

When it was my moment to go and talk to him I had the DVD cover of Thinking for him to sign. I did tell him that I was excited about seeing it later when they were doing a showing. He did tell me that it was just a short film but that he did think it was really good and that he hoped I would enjoy it. I also thanked him again for complimenting my shirt earlier and told him that I was sort of trying to adapt the text as my motto and that I was trying to learn to live my life so that I didn\u2019t care so much about what other people thought about me. He said it was a good goal and that he was trying to live like that too. I also did ask him something but it has totally escaped my mind what it was. Will edit at some point if I remember what it was. I might have ended up oversharing a bit but he was watching me the whole time and it did seem he paid attention. There were no signs of him getting impatient with me or looking like he wished I would already be gone and I totally love him for that. I gave my thanks and went to the side to wait for <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> who was in the queue after me. When she got her autograph we decided to try our luck with also getting Marci Adilman, who had directed the film as well as starred there along Randy, to sign the DVD cover as well. She was sitting at the side behind a table where they were selling the DVDs. We didn\u2019t have the courage to ask her directly in case we stepped over some lines so we found a staff member and asked her. She had no idea but she asked Marci herself, if she was willing to sign the DVDs for us. She seemed genuinely surprised that we actually wanted her autograph as well and said that sure she would sign them. She was really nice. We talked with her for a while and she signed the DVD covers. She also told us that she hoped we would enjoy the film when they showed it later.

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Since there was still time before the screening started I decided to get Rachel\u2019s and Laurel\u2019s autographs out of the way too. I joined Rachel\u2019s queue first and got her to sign a picture from the L-Word. While she was signing there was some small talk about me being from Finland and she seemed surprised that I had made the trip just for the convention. I did tell her that it was quite normal for me and that I made these trips a few times a year. I did say it had been nice meeting her and continued on my way.

Next I joined the queue for Laurel\u2019s autograph. For some reason that queue seemed to progress really slowly. Finally it was my turn and I handed her a promo picture from the L-Word. Did ask if she had had fun and she said yes but that was about it for our conversation. I did tell her too that it had been nice meeting her before walking away. I don\u2019t know if it was just me but I did get a slightly arrogant picture of her. To me it seemed she really wasn\u2019t that interested in being there, or at least not doing the autographs and photos. On stage she did seem different. Don\u2019t know, maybe it was just me.

At that point it was quite close to the time they were going to start showing Thinking so I got myself a seat from the hall. They showed the film and luckily everything worked well so that our enjoyment wasn\u2019t ruined by any technical difficulties or anything. It really was a lovely small film. Basically told a story of a girl that goes to this silent meditation thing and while there, her thoughts start running into quite inappropriate directions. There was no dialogue in the film but only some music and then some sounds. If you get the chance, you should definitely check the film out. I quite enjoyed it.

After the screening Marci Adilman came on stage to do a small Q&A. I think Randy was supposed to join her too but I guess they changed their mind. Maybe he was too tired or something. Marci talked about making the film and how the whole idea had actually come from Randy since he had gone to this silent retreat some years back and then made her go too. There had been this guy in there that Marci thought was giving her the eye, or not. She couldn\u2019t be quite sure of it. And since there was no talking there, she couldn\u2019t really find out. She actually wrote the story for the film while at that retreat.

She also told a few other tidbits about the process and how they had almost gotten thrown out of the place they were filming in because the owner of the place thought they were doing pornography there because at one point there were just stage notes in the script that said, Marci making out with Randy in the hottub, Marci making out with Lucy at the hottub, everyone making out in the hottub. The guy had confronted Marci about that and made her cry. After that a few bulky guys who were part of the production had told the guy that they weren\u2019t making pornography and that he had no right to talk to Marci that way. They told the guy that if he had a problem in the future, he should come and talk to them.

Marci and Randy have been friends since they were 12 and they established (t)AB to give their friends who hadn\u2019t had the exposure Randy has had a chance to get their work out there too. She talked about how they had already as teens talked about moving to NY together and doing something there. She wasn\u2019t living in NY anymore, though. Someone asked her what she thought was Randy\u2019s best character quality. She had hard time answering that since she thought there were so many good qualities in Randy. In the end she went with his enthusiasm and how when he got excited about something, he really went for it and was passionate about it.

There were some other questions too but I just can\u2019t remember them now. She was really adorable on stage. While I had talked with her earlier she appeared a bit nervous about the thought of getting in front of all the people to talk about the film but I do think she did well.

Picturetime!

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That was about it for the convention for us for that day. There were still some panels happening but we already knew that those were going to be only in French so they weren\u2019t much use to us. Most of our group were heading into town to celebrate <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span>\u2019s Birthday but I opted out since I was feeling quite tired. Instead I made plans with <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>ryana82<\/b><\/a><\/span> to go for a drink a bit later after we\u2019d had some time to rest. <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> was heading to the VIP dinner with the guests. We weren\u2019t envious of her at all, no we weren\u2019t \/sarcasm. We tried to find her something new to wear for the dinner but couldn\u2019t find any shops that were open so she just decided to go in something that she already had.

At the hotel I spent some time talking with <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>ryana82<\/b><\/a><\/span>. We headed to this small restaurant near the river and got drinks there. The first drink we drank outside since it was quite nice there but when we decided to stay for another drink we went inside because it started to get slightly chilly. We suddenly realized that of course we should order Cosmopolitans since we were there due to QaF after all. Unfortunately that drink wasn\u2019t included in the restaurants list (A\/N: It\u2019s one of the most basic drinks. What kind of bar doesn\u2019t have that?) so we ended up ordering something else and some fries to share. I\u2019m quite glad that the place was practically empty since we did end up making quite a racket. There was a lot of laughing and story sharing, both to do with QaF and otherwise. While we were there we talked about how it was amazing how people who have actually not ever met each other before can get along so well after such a short time. We also started doing some quotes from QaF and talked about our favorite scenes.

After the two drinks we decided it was probably best to return to the hotel even if we were really enjoying ourselves. Still the tiredness and the alcohol had done their job and there was maybe a small amount of hysteria in the air. *g*

At the hotel I tried to get my laptop to work again but without much success. I knew I needed to stay awake until <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/457118.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","planet babylon","randy harrison"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/456733.html","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:20:46 GMT","title":"Planet Babylon - Convention report part 1","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/456733.html","description":"I so wanted to keep posting all kinds of random tidbits throughout the day today but in the end decided to go with one at least closely coherent post rather than several posts during the day that are in random order. If my adventures in Paris and Planet Babylon convention interest you, click the cut. *g*

Warning: This is a loooooooooooooooooong post. And there are a lot of pictures. I\u2019m thinking this is the longest one I\u2019m going to do of the convention. Somehow so much happened during the first days that the report got a bit long. The report includes practically everything that went on but if you are just interested in the parts with Randy, feel free to skip the rest. No hard feelings. *g*

There are plenty of photos in the text. They are all clickable for larger. Also this report is all shareable as are the pics of the guests. However, I'd appreciate a heads up if you take parts of the report or the pics.



Let\u2019s get the boring parts out first. Since the convention was starting early on Saturday morning I decided to travel to Paris already on Friday so that I could be there right from the beginning. After pretty useless morning at work I headed for the airport and got on the plane. The flight was quite uneventful and boring. I just kept on fretting and hoping that I would find my way to the hotel since I wasn\u2019t entirely sure where I was going and how I was getting there. I had also heard that there were some strikes going on that might affect the flow of traffic.

When I got to the airport in Paris I was in for a surprise since I\u2019ve never been at CDG Terminal 1 before. The place was seriously like a space station. Felt really weird. There were these long conveyer belts you had to use. I followed behind the other passengers and tried to find my way to the train station. It took me a while to find out that there was no train station at Terminal 1 but I had to use special train they had to travel between terminals to get to Terminal three where I could get to the train going into town.

After some searching I found the train station and even managed to buy a ticket that I hoped would get me the whole way to the hotel. There was a train standing on the station so I thought I was in a hurry and ran to the closest door. I wasn\u2019t the only one running. The train was already filled almost to capacity but I managed to squeeze in. Soon it became apparent that the train wasn\u2019t going anywhere soon. And the whole time there were more people coming. Soon it really started feeling quite tight in the train and I was very happy I don\u2019t suffer from claustrofobia. Finally after I had spent around 25 minutes in the train without it moving, it finally left. My feet were killing me already at that point and I was afraid I wasn\u2019t going to be able to handle the trip. I kept hoping that other people would leave the train on the stops so that I could get a seat. Unfortunately, that didn\u2019t happen. Quite the opposite, actually. Just more and more people kept squeezing into the train. I had to make quite an effort to keep enough room for myself so that I could keep on breathing and not getting totally trampled. Part of the time I only had space to keep one foot down so I was standing on one leg. Really didn\u2019t help my already sore legs.

Getting out of the train when we finally reached the stop I was getting off on, was an interesting experience too since some of the idiotic people who were waiting for the train tried to get inside at the same time as people were getting out. Not very productive. Still managed to get myself and my luggage out of the train. My next problem was to find the next train I had to change to. The signs on the station were slightly confusing but finally I managed to find to the right platform. With that train I only traveled for a few stops before having to change again. Luckily in that third train I got a seat since I wasn\u2019t entirely sure if my legs were going to carry me anymore. Although, sitting down had the downside of tiredness getting hold of me. I had quite a few stops to go. While in the train I tried to see from the map which way I should head from the metro stop when I finally got there, to reach the hotel.

When I finally got to the station I wanted I just picked one of the exits and hoped I didn\u2019t end up anywhere really far. With the help of my map I reached the hotel and walked inside. I was sharing a room with <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> but I knew she hadn\u2019t gotten to the hotel yet, so I sat down to wait. After a while the guy at the reception asked me if I wanted a coffee, which a gladly accepted. I can\u2019t remember when coffee tasted that good the last time. I was feeling really tired and just hoped the people I was sharing with, would come soon, so that I could get to finally take my shoes off and take it easy. Also hunger started to be an issue since I hadn\u2019t really eaten much all day.

I had waited for a while before the guy at the reception asked if I was certain I was at the right hotel since there was another hotel nearby with the same name. I did tell him that I was pretty sure but then started to doubt. I sent <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> a text asking for the address of the hotel. After a while she replied to me and I found out that I indeed was at the wrong hotel. Felt really embarrassed about that when I had to admit to the hotel staff that I was in the wrong place. They were really good about it and helpfully pointed me into the right direction. I collected my stuff and started walking again.

Luckily quite soon I reached the right hotel and again sat down to wait. I didn\u2019t have to wait for long before I saw <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> walking into the hotel. I was introduced to her friend, Alessandra, who was also sharing with us and we got our key. When we reached the room we noticed that it was a very small one and with us three standing there with our luggages there wasn\u2019t much spare room.

<\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> knew that there was someone else she knew staying at the hotel as well and we knew their room number. We went to see if those people were in the room. A lot of squeeing was followed when they opened the door. After the biggest squeeing was over I was introduced to <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> and her friend <\/a>ryana82<\/b><\/a><\/span>. We talked with them for a while and agreed to go to get some dinner in a while.

Back in our room we were making plans and at the same time keeping the door open to our room. After a few minutes a girl came to talk with us and asked if we were heading for the Planet Babylon convention as well. She introduced herself as <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> and we invited her to join us for dinner as well.

A while later we all met outside the hotel and our group was still joined by Carla, another girl that <\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span> knew from before. Together we headed for the nearby square in search for food. I was very hungry at that point since I hadn\u2019t really eaten anything all day. After some discussion we picked KFC as our dinner place. It was sort of my choice since we don\u2019t have that in Finland. The dinner went nicely while talking and getting to know all these new people.

At this point it was already quite late so we headed straight back to the hotel. We knew that the next day was going to be a long and exciting one so bed called quite soon.

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Saturday 30.10.2010

Didn\u2019t sleep too well for some reason, but that\u2019s quite usual for me in strange places, and then I also woke up pretty early because I wanted to be at the convention place as soon as they opened. There wasn\u2019t anything with Randy on until afternoon but I had agreed with <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span>, <\/a>ryana82<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> that we were going to be there early anyway. I tried to be really quiet since I didn\u2019t want to disturb my roommates too much. I met the other girls in the lobby and we headed towards the convention center. On our way there we went to a store to get some snacks and drinks for the day since we weren\u2019t entirely sure how the day was going to go.

At the convention center we found quite a few other people already waiting. We joined the sort of end of the queue, if you could call it that. It was just a big group of people loitering around. No sign of the sophisticated queuing culture I\u2019m used to from conventions in the UK. *g* When the doors were opened everybody rushed in and the registration began. They were yelling something but since it was in French we didn\u2019t really catch any of it. Finally I got near to the table and handed my letter. They gave it a one look and said that I needed to be in the other queue since that queue was just for people who had one day ticket. Great communication for us non-French speakers\u2026So I pushed myself into the other queue and got my wrist band we weren\u2019t supposed to take off until the end of the con. Mine was put so loosely on my wrist that it came off without problems. Made it easier to shower and dress without it. But at the same time it made me fear that I'd lose it.

Next we joined the queue for the hall. There were two queues since there were two doors. We had no idea which one to pick so we just went to the closer one. Finally we were let into the hall. <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span>, the lucky bastard, had one of the VIP tickets so she went to join the other VIPs in the first row and we took seats from further back. Still I thought, they were decent seats. And the first talk was with a L-Word guest so the seats didn\u2019t matter as much.

Then the convention actually started. There was some music from QaF and some other tracks. They started with a dance the organizers had done. It was good but I was already impatiently waiting for things to get on their way. After the dance finished we still had to wait for a while before the presenters came on stage and started. At first there was just French and I had no idea what they were saying. I kept hoping they would at some point say something in English too, or otherwise I would be in trouble. Finally one of the presenters asked if there were any English speakers present that don\u2019t speak French. I raised my hand and she explained at least some things also in English. It did sound quite a lot shorter than the French version but I guess we got the main points.

The first guest on stage was Rachel Shelley (Helena) from L-Word. They started with an interview they had obviously done at some point earlier. She was asked several questions and those questions were shown on screen, in French, before her answers were played. Since I didn\u2019t understand the questions it was occasionally hard to grasp her answers. I wonder why they couldn\u2019t put the questions also in English on the screen.

After that video interview Rachel came on stage and they had a Q&A with her. The questions were asked in French and then translated to English and then Rachel answered it and the answer was translated to French. Very time consuming but I guess they had to do it that way. Since I was at the con mainly for Randy I can\u2019t remember much of the questions and answers. I do remember she was asked about how she got the part, what she thought of her character, how it was to come to the show a bit later than the others, what she thought about the storylines etc. I do remember some of her answers so in case you are interested, just ask. During the Q&A I noticed that we were sitting slightly too much to theleft side since the place where they did the Q&A was more on the right side of the stage. Made plans with my friends to get seats from that side for Randy\u2019s Q&A.

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When Rachel\u2019s Q&A ended we actually moved to the seats on the right side of the hall. Just when we got to our seats Laurel Holloman, also from the L-Word got on stage to say a short hello to people.

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They were announcing that they were starting with Rachel\u2019s and Laurel\u2019s photoshoots soon. Even if I wasn\u2019t that interested in them, I was planning on getting photos with them both so after waiting for a while, I went to see what the queues looked like. On my way there I happened to notice some familiar faces. I think I almost bowled poor <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>masterglory<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>frodina<\/b><\/a><\/span>. I exchanged a few words with them and then headed for the photo queues. I chose Laurel\u2019s first since it was shorter. Pretty soon I was there and took my place beside her. She had her hands in the pockets of her jacket so that was quite a clear sign since didn\u2019t want any contact with people. I said my \"hello\" and \"thanks\" and that was pretty much it.

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Next I went to Rachel\u2019s queue. While I was there I saw <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> leaving the hall. She had all the stuff I had left there with her since they were closing the hall for lunch and we had to leave the building. I hadn\u2019t known that. I had sort of hoped that we would get to keep the places we had managed to reserve for ourselves from the right side of the hall since the next official program was Randy\u2019s Q&A. It meant that we would need to fight for those places after the lunch break. The girls were heading for lunch but I wasn\u2019t feeling hungry so I said I\u2019d remain behind and see them later. When it was my turn to go to a photo with Rachel I walked to her. She said hello in French but I replied in English. She shook my hand and then put her hand on my waist. I copied her and we got the picture taken. Got a lot better impression of her than from Laurel. After the picture I again said my thanks and left.

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I tried to hang around inside the building but I was told that I had to go outside. I walked a small distance away from the place but then returned back to the building and went to stand in front of the doors. There was two people before me there. After a while other people started joining us. What surprised me was that they just walked past us to the doors with no consideration to the fact that there was an obvious queue forming. Close to two I was joined by some of my friends and as soon as the doors opened we tried to get inside. As luck would have it they only opened one of the doors and that was of course one of the ones that wasn\u2019t close to me. We continued our way straight to the hall but there something was yelled at us. Since it was again in French I didn\u2019t understand but people started to back away. I asked someone to explain to me what was happening and they said we weren\u2019t allowed in the hall yet. I backed out of the hall as well but tactically so that I was pretty close to the door. As soon as we were let in I ran towards the row I had planned on and threw my bag on one of the chairs. I then continued running through the row and threw my jacket on a chair that was about ten places from the first chair. Some people tried to come to the row but I told them that the row was reserved. Finally I saw my friends arriving and they took places on the row. I took the seat next to the aisle myself since I knew that would have a good view of the stage and hopefully the chair where Randy would be sitting.

They again started with a dance show. After that they told us that we would be doing that dance routine for the guests on Monday. I decided there and then that I wasn\u2019t going to be doing any dancing. Um, yeah. More about that later. *g* Before they actually let the actors on stage they showed some clip from the L-Word with Laurel in it. I sort of expected there to be a clip of Randy or from QaF too, but there wasn\u2019t.

Finally the Q&A got started. It was shared between Randy and Laurel Holloman but I concentrated just on Randy. The floor was opened to questions from the audience. The actors were also given three \"wildcards\" that allowed them to pass questions if they so wished. There was no need to use those. Again more on that later.

Let\u2019s start with a few pictures

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You would think that with all the conventions I\u2019ve done, I would have learned to take paper and pen with me. Although, if I had been writing I wouldn\u2019t have had time to take pictures. Luckily for me <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>
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<\/a> Seriously!!! Look at him! How can anyone be that gorgeous, let me ask you

<\/a> I guess someone asked something difficult *g*
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<\/a> And another example of the gorgeousness that is Mr. Randy Harrison. So unfair!


After the Q&A ended it was time for me to go crazy. They told us that they still had one VIP pass to auction. They started the bidding at \u20ac250. I started bidding on it. First it looked good since there weren\u2019t that many people bidding but soon it became evident that those that were, were quite determined. In the end it was just me and another girl. I totally went crazy and just kept on bidding. I went way past what I could actually afford. Gave up at \u20ac920 and the VIP pass went to the other girl with \u20ac950. So um yeah, maybe a good thing I gave up. *g* I really couldn\u2019t have afford that. But I did feel disappointed since the VIP pass would have included a dinner with the guests. Next they started the bidding on coffee moments with the guests. So there I went again bidding for those. Ended up winning one of the spots at a coffee moment with Randy. Paid quite a lot for it but at that moment I didn\u2019t really care since I knew I was going to have some more private time with Randy and that was all that mattered. They didn\u2019t accept credit cards so I had to make a run to the ATM to get some more cash since I didn\u2019t have the amount with me. Luckily there was an ATM quite close. I took care of paying for the coffee and was informed that it was going to happen a bit later and that I needed to be at a certain spot at a certain time.

About then they started photoshoots with Randy. Officially my number wasn\u2019t going to be called that day but I decided to go and join the queue anyway since I wanted my first contact with Randy even if I knew I had the coffee coming up. Was feeling a bit nervous while I stood in the queue and I really hoped I wouldn\u2019t end up doing anything stupid or making a fool of myself. There was also the fact that I knew I was going to have a heavy make up on in the evening and just in case I couldn\u2019t get it all off, I wanted a pic with him without the danger of my face being all green in the picture.

When it was my turn I walked to Randy. He shook my hand and said hello, first in French but when I replied in English, he also said hello in English. I replied and then he placed his hand on my waist I put mine on his. It is possible I forgot to breathe for a while. After the picture was taken, I said my thanks and left. The whole thing took something like 15 seconds so not a very long meeting. *g* Felt slightly jittery. I walked to my friends and stood there watching while other people got their pictures taken. Did snap a few candid shots but they didn\u2019t come out too well.


<\/a>

<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>


Then it was time for my coffee moment. Too bad Randy hadn\u2019t been told that he was supposed to be there. We had to wait for him for quite a while. There were three other girls with me waiting for him. One of them said to me that she had seen pictures of me and Gale from earlier in the year when I went to see him in Orpheus Descending. While we waited we talked about random things and also kept hoping that our moment with Randy wasn\u2019t going to be cut short due to him being late, or canceled altogether. One thing I remember we talked about was having more QaF guests at the con. We talked about how we knew that at least Scott and Thea had expressed interest in doing conventions in Europe but neither had obviously been asked. I ended up telling how friendly Scott was towards his fans and how he had a habit of personally answering if you messaged him through Twitter or Facebook.

Finally Randy arrived and we went to this really small room with him. Seriously the room was maybe about three meters on every side. Very cozy. I did a tactical move and remained standing so that I was closest to Randy and when they finally brought us chairs I got to sit pretty close. Before the chairs were brought Randy shook all our hands and told us his name. I silently thought inside my head that \u201cas if we don\u2019t know who you are\u201d but I guess his intention with that was for us to introduce ourselves, which we did. While we were still standing around and waiting for the chairs I commented about not speaking a word of French and how that makes it occasionally a bit difficult to keep up with what\u2019s happening. That prompted him to ask us where we were from. I told I was from Finland. He asked me what it was like there and I said it\u2019s quite cold in the winter and that we have quite a lot of snow. Couldn\u2019t come up with anything more intelligent at that point. He also asked which part of Finland I was from and said that I live in Helsinki, even if that isn\u2019t totally true since I live in the city next to Helsinki but the capital is usually known for people, while the smaller cities probably aren\u2019t. Then Randy proceeded to ask the others where they were from. Two of the girls were from Paris and one girl was from Russia. The Russian girl gave Randy a bottle of Russian vodka as a present. At that point I regretted that I hadn\u2019t gotten the bottle of special Finnish vodka for him, which I had thought about but never went through with. It was too late then. The girl from Russia did mention that she was actually living in France at the moment with student visa in the Bordeaux area. Randy mentioned that he had spent a month in Bordeaux learning French a few years ago and that he really liked it there.

So then Randy asked if we had some questions for him. Unfortunately I can\u2019t remember everything that was talked but below are the subjects and answers I do remember. The order can be very wrong but I\u2019m just writing them as I remember. We were also given small cups of coffee. There were some cookies on offer but no one touched those. Randy managed to spill half of his coffee on the floor but luckily he didn\u2019t spill it on himself.

The ending of QaF<\/i> Randy pretty much repeated what he had said on stage about him being happy about the way they ended the show and how he felt that Justin could have never really grown up if he had stayed with Brian. He needed to learn and take care of himself. He felt that Brian\u2019s and Justin\u2019s relatioship wasn\u2019t equal at any point and that it was more like an older mentor and a young apprentice. He felt that Justin needed to stand on his own two feet. I mentioned something about maybe being able to accept the ending but how I thought it was wrong that Justin wasn\u2019t there even for the reopening of Babylon and how I felt he should have been there.

Him working in general<\/i> Randy also repeated some of what he had said on stage about his work situation at the moment. He said that he\u2019s looking for interesting projects and that he actually did have the chance to audition for something but he didn\u2019t go because he didn\u2019t want anything conflicting with him attending the convention. I went all \u201caawwww\u201d in my head at that point but luckily didn\u2019t say anything. Randy did again talk about being ready to do TV again. He said that he suffers from ADD and that makes it hard for him to keep on doing the same thing for a long time and after QaF finished he couldn\u2019t keep on doing TV anymore and just had to concentrate on something else.

Show's at Joe's Pub<\/i> I asked him if he had any plans to make another show at Joe's Pub anytime soon. He did say that he did have some plans and maybe there was going to be another thing from him. I mentioned seeing the previous performances from YouTube. I did add it of course wasn't nearly the same thing but all I had access to. He did agree that YouTube maybe wasn't the best channel to see them.

Traveling<\/i> We talked about how easy it was to travel around the EU countries but how difficult it could be to get visas from other countries. Randy asked me if Finland was part of EU and I said yes. Didn\u2019t tell him that Finland has been part of EU for over 15 years now. *g* While we were at the subject of traveling I happened to mention that it was pretty easy for us to travel to US as well, or that we didn\u2019t need visas for that. He then asked about work permits but to that I said that wasn\u2019t easy for us and talked about how we did have permission to stay in the country for three months at a time. I happened to mention that I had visited the US for the first time last February and went to LA. Randy asked me what I had done there and someone else told him that I had gone to see Gale and I sat there with my face probably beet red. He then asked me what I had thought about the play and if I had liked it. I told him I had thought it was really great but that occasionally I did have some problems understanding the really southern accents they had in it since my English wasn\u2019t that fluent. Randy immediately told me that he thought my English was very good. I probably blushed even more and stammered my thanks.

Drinking<\/i> Don\u2019t remember how this came up but there was talk about how it seemed that people who are from cold countries seem to drink more. I did mention that Finnish people are quite heavy drinkers. Randy continued to mention a few cities in the US that are famous for a lot of drinking. One of them was Minneapolis and I mentioned that I need to see if that\u2019s true when I go there next February. Randy immediately told me that he knows that there is a really great theater group in Minneapolis and that I should definitely go see their production while I was there, if they had anything on. I told him that I need to check it out. I then continued to tell him that I was going to travel around a bit with a friend and mentioned all the cities we were going to visit. One of them was San Francisco and Randy said that he\u2019s never been there but that he\u2019s heard that it\u2019s really beautiful there.

QaF in general<\/i> Randy has never seen the finished fourth season of QaF and that he only saw season five only a while ago. There was talk about how many fans don\u2019t like seasons four and five and especially the fact that Brian and Justin don\u2019t end up together in the end. We again returned to the subject that Randy felt that Justin couldn\u2019t really grow up if he stayed. I said something about people possibly wanting a happy ending and Randy commented something on the lines of, why can't Justin be happy when he's alone. Being single can be fun too. I did say something about being happy that I was single right now. (Oops! Oversharing much?) Then the cancer arc was mentioned from season four and I said how that was one of my favorite arcs. And also mentioned the scene where after Brian has thrown Justin out, he comes back, makes him chicken soup and tells him to \"fuckin\u2019 eat it\". While we were discussing the whole series it came out that one of the girls hadn\u2019t actually seen all of the series yet but was somewhere in the middle of season four. So we sort of totally spoiled her by accident, but she didn\u2019t say anything beforehand so there was no way we could have known. Randy seemed genuiely sorry for that. After that people were a bit more careful what they said. Someone did mention that it seemed he wasn\u2019t so enthusiastic about his part on seasons four and five and he claimed that wasn\u2019t the case at all. Randy said that he did like his part until the end but just had to do something completely different after the series finished. Someone asked about him shaving his hair for the pink posse arc and he said that his hair was actually shaved right there and then when the scene was filmed. I guess they had to get the shot right on one shot. *g*

Gay rights<\/i> It was discussed that the way Brian saves the day in season three felt a bit out of character for him. Randy started talking about how the creators did have a strong political agenda with the series (A\/N: no kidding!!!) and how they wanted to address many of the things that gays face in the US even nowadays. From there the discussion continued to gay rights over all and how gays still have really hard time in many countries. Randy remembered hearing about people being arrested when they tried to organize a Pride parade in Russia. I told about this huge debate that is going on in Finland right now about gays\u2019 right to marry. He seemed surprised that gays weren\u2019t allowed to marry in Finland. I told him that there was this civil partnership thing but that it wasn\u2019t the same thing as marriage since it didn\u2019t give inheritance rights or automatically give the right to take the other\u2019s name. I did mention we had elections coming up next spring and that how it seemed the gay rights were going to be one of the big questions there. Did talk about rewatching QaF just a while ago and how I had noticed the political influences there and how they fit quite well since a lot of discussion was going around in Finland too.

Internet<\/i> Randy told us that he really doesn\u2019t go and read what\u2019s written about him in the Internet since he knows that stuff can upset. He said he did it in the beginning but stopped after he read some bad stuff. He also said that he had to be really careful what he said since things could return to haunt him at a later stage. From there it was jumped to the next subject.

Fanfiction<\/i> This discussion wasn\u2019t started by me but by someone else but I do admit that I took part in the discussion in some parts. Randy seemed surprised people were still interested in that and it was explained that people use it as sort of way to survive the disappointment that was the series finale and how quite a lot of the stuff is concentrated on the time after the finale. Randy asked if a lot of it is graphic. He was told that if he went searching and found fics that were marked NC-17 it probably was quite graphic. I started gringing when he was told how to find those fics if he so wished. I\u2019m feeling I should lock all my fics now\u2026Not that they really come up in any searches. And the gringing really started when RPS was brought up. I felt like yelling, haven\u2019t you heard that you should NEVER EVER bring up RPS in front of the actors. Randy didn\u2019t know what it meant and the term was explained to him. I remained carefully quiet. Randy seemed quite shocked when he found out what RPS is. He really was puzzled and said that people confuse him with his character and wondered how people could write things about him when they only knew him as Justin. He was told that sometimes people take stuff from interviews and things. I stared at the floor. To me it seemed that Randy felt quite uncomfortable by the idea that someone was actually writing fics about him as the person and not just his character.

Fat, middle aged fans<\/i> From the RPS and taking stuff from interview we got to him making the comment in some interview about fat middle aged fangirls. I\u2019ve just heard about that. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever read the interview in question. At first Randy denied saying anything like that but when the subject was explored further he did seem to remember something. He repeated what he had said earlier about having to be really careful what he said in interviews since his saying could easily be taken out of context and cause problems. He suspected he had been annoyed by the rumours that someone had taken photos of him in the nude while he had been doing a play where he was completely naked. He was assured that it was quite probable those pictures didn\u2019t exist since if they did, we would have seen them because everything spreads so quickly in the Net. He said something on the lines of being glad about that.

The video that shouldn\u2019t have been public<\/i> While we were in the subject of everything spreading quickly in the Net, a certain video was mentioned that was up on Vimeo and obviously meant as a private video. It was available only for about a day or two but during that time everyone and their brother saw it and it was shared all over. He seemed really confused about the video and didn\u2019t even seem to know what we were talking about after the video was described to him and he was told who was in it with him. I don\u2019t know if he was being dense on purpose or if he really had no recollection of making that video but we dropped that subject quite quickly. Someone from the group did say to Randy that we were sorry that we had seen the video and that we were also sorry in case any fans had ever upset him. He assured that he didn\u2019t take things personally.

At some point Randy felt a bit sorry for the French girls since they were pretty much sitting there quiet since their English wasn\u2019t that good and me and the other girl were pretty much dominating the conversation. He did talk in French with them for a while. About what, I have no idea, since I don\u2019t understand French, as has probably already been established. *g*

I have no idea how long we actually ended up having with him but it seemed like time flew and way too soon we were told that the session had ended. Randy thanked us all and said that he was going to see us all later in the photoshoots as well as autographs. I took the opportunity to show my nails (with rainbows in them) to him and he said he had noticed them and liked them. He asked me if I had done them myself but I told him that a friend of mine had done them for me. Someone also asked him if he was going to be at the party that night and he said that probably not since he was feeling quite jetlagged. I did say to him that I hoped he would get some nice theater project and that maybe I could then get to see him on stage whey I go to NY next February.

Generally I felt that the coffee with him was a nice chance for us to talk with him. It was more like normal conversation than a Q&A since we could express our own thoughts too. All in all, I thought it was money well spent. Will worry about the credit card bill later\u2026

I walked out of the area where the coffee had been held and almost immediately saw some of my friends. Of course I had to go to them to tell them all about my moments with Randy. Was feeling all jittery.

A while later Randy started doing autographs. After some consideration I decided to join the queue to get the free autograph that came with my ticket. I knew I would have two other days as well to get his autograph but I knew myself and guessed I was probably going to buy extra ones any way so decided to get one that day. I wanted to maximize my time with Randy. *g* At first there were quite a few of us in the queue but in the end it was just me and <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> who queued until the end and got autographs. All others decided to get them some other day. While we queued again tried to snap a few pictures even if you weren\u2019t actually allowed to do that. There was this security guy who kept yelling \"no pictures\" at us.

I was surprised to see that you were actually allowed some peace and quiet while you got your autograph. The queue was formed so that the head of it was about two meters from the table where Randy was sitting and everyone got to walk to the table on their turn to have their moment with him. Even if I had just had the coffee with him, I still felt nervous. When my turn came I walked to the table and said hi. He said something on the lines \u201chello again\u201d. I had written my name on a piece of paper just in case and placed that so that he could see it. Said something about my name being short and easy. For some reason I decided to share him what I was going to be dressed as in the party that night, i.e. Elfaba from Wicked. I did add I was going to do that if I got it to work out. He said that he was sure I would do great. I did ask him the one question I had forgotten to ask during the coffee about how it would be best to keep up with his work and what he\u2019s up to. He didn\u2019t really have an answer for that. I then asked him if I should just keep my eyes and ears open and he said that it was probably the best. He then joked that sometimes it felt like the fans knew what he was up to before he himself did. The whole time I was there he kept looking at me and that made me stammer a little. I got him to sign a shot from the episode 510 where Brian and Justin are standing in front of an ambulance (the ILU-scene *g*) and told him that it was one of my favorite scenes too. He said that it was a meaningful scene but that he hadn\u2019t wanted to talk about it at our coffee moment because that one girl hadn\u2019t seen those episodes yet. He wrote \"Pia, my Finnish fan. All the best. Randy\" (Scanned below) on the picture. After that I thanked him again for the coffee moment as well as for the auto and left. I hung around and waited while <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> got her autograph and her moment with Randy. When she was done we headed out of the building since there wasn\u2019t anything else on before the party that night. We knew we had quite a lot of preparations to do and we also needed to get something to eat.

<\/a>

While we had been standing at the autograph queue we had seen the others standing outside but when we got there, they were gone. We guessed they were heading for the hotel and headed that way too. At the hotel I texted <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span>\u2019s room to wait. When I got a text that she was at the hotel, I went to pick up my stuff from the room where I had spent the first night and dragged them into the new room. Found out that it was a bit spacier than the other room,which was good. After a small discussion we agreed that we were going to see each other at the party later since they had plans to go somewhere further away for dinner and I didn\u2019t want to travel in the metro while being green. *g*

Ended up at McDonald\u2019s for dinner with <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> so nothing special. We just had some quick salad there before heading back to the hotel to get ready. I knew it was going to take me a while to get all the needed make up on. Luckily <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> had promised to help me. It did take me a while to get the make up done. I was quite happy with the result. Of course if I had had more time, I could have done a more careful job. Then we made our way down to the lobby where we met up with <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>ryana82<\/b><\/a><\/span>. They were quite surprised by my look, as were the hotel staff. Also got some looks during our walk back to the convention place. One guy asked us where we were going and obviously would have liked to join us.

The party hadn\u2019t really started yet when we got there so we just hung around. A while later they announced the beginning of the competition of the Queen\/King of the party and told the people who wanted to take part to make themselves known. Another crazy moment for me when I walked there and said that I wanted to take part. I had no idea what I had just gotten myself into. I was told that I needed two people to help me and managed to talk <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> and <\/a>ryana82<\/b><\/a><\/span> into it. Only then it was revealed that there was going to be dance routines that we\u2019d need to do. I was so certain we were going to be out of the competition immediately. I\u2019m so bad with dancing and remembering stuff. Anyway, I did decide to try my luck. They first showed the routine to us so that there were a few people dancing in front of us for the whole song. Next we had to do it without help. I was totally out of it but at the end we were told that no one was disqualified on that round. There was another song we had to do and after that a few of the teams were thrown out. I was surprised when we were told that we were still in the game.

My costume
<\/a>
<\/a>

Next it was announced that we got a small break to cool down. I had noticed that the wig I was wearing was very hot so I was glad about the break. It was also announced that Randy was going to join the party after all very soon and he did make an appearance. We were told not to haras him with photos. I was sort of curious to know if he was going to remember me after I had told him about my costume and situated myself quite close to where he was standing. He did look towards me, gave me a smile and told me that I looked wonderful. I was glad about the green make up since my blush couldn\u2019t be seen through that. *g*

Soon the break was over and the competition continued. They kept calling me the \"Wicked Witch of the West\" for the whole night, which was sort of right since that was who I was. They did ask for my name at some point too but I guess they forgot it. *g*

There were some more dance routines and they kept dropping people. Every single time I was surprised that we were still allowed to continue since I knew I was messing up the routines and my teammates also told me that they weren\u2019t doing that well either. I did suspect we got some pity votes. *g* Finally there were just three teams left and they came up with something different. All the competitors got their turn to pull on socks to one leg and the competition was judged based on how many socks you were able to put on your foot in two minutes. I intentionally wanted to be the last one so that I would have some idea how far I should get to stay in the competition. The first person managed to put 17 socks on. The next one got 13 so I set my goal at 18. When my time started I did try to count but very quickly lost count. I could hear <\/a>ancaangie<\/b><\/a><\/span> yelling numbers at me indicating how many socks I still needed to put on. At some point she started just yelling \"one more\" over and over again. And I did. Finally the time ran out and it was time to count the socks. I was pretty sure I had reached the required amount but wasn\u2019t completely certain of it. When the socks were counted, it came out that I had 22 socks on, so I won that round. We were told that there was one more round left and for that round we needed to come up with a dance routine of our own for a song they played to us. The song was totally foreign to me and quite weird too. I had a pretty bad feeling about the whole thing.

We were given around 10 or 15 minutes to rehearse our routines. We went outside to practice and cool down a little. Pretty quickly we came up with a quite simple routine that still had quite a few moves in it and it was easy to be repeated time and time again. I had no idea if it was a good one or not. I also had trouble remembering what came after what. We did have nice memory rules. Us saying aloud \u201chip, hip, ass, ass, turn\u201d got some looks from passersby. Or maybe it was just the fact that we were making dance moves outside the building, without any music. <\/a>g_m_h_3<\/b><\/a><\/span> worked as our choreographer. When our practice time was over we returned inside and did the routine. I had no time to pay attention to the other team so I had no idea how we were doing compared to them. I did try to remember our routine but ended up messing quite a few times. When the song ended it was time for the audience to vote for the winner. The voting was made by people clapping to the team they thought deserved the win. First they wanted to votes for the other team. I was quite surprised when they really didn\u2019t get much votes. When they asked people to clap to us, it was quite clear that we had won since the clapping was thundering. I was very surprised. The both finalists were told to get up on this small podium and we were given our prizes. The girl who came second was given a silver crown and I was given a gold one as well as this huge lollipop. Then there were a lot of photos taken. Maybe half of the people still left at the party wanted to take a photo of us or me. I guess my photo is now in quite a few places. I was just sad that Randy had already left the party at that point. It would have been nice if he had been the one to hand out the prizes. I would have been a very happy girl then. *g*

<\/a> My wonderful team that helped me to win!
<\/a> Me with my crown and \"scepter\"

After that the party was practically over. We got our jackets and started to walk back to the hotel. I really hoped <\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>aschicca<\/b><\/a><\/a>evy_9_seconds<\/b><\/a><\/span>. At some point I decided that I just had to let them sleep finally and went to take the green make up off. However, noticed that you really had to scrub the stuff off so ended up needing help since I couldn\u2019t reach my back. Luckily my lovely roommate helped me. It did take quite a while before my skin started to look normal again. Still I wouldn\u2019t be surprised even if I still would find green spots somewhere. The most important was to get the color off my face and neck since those were the areas which would show the most and since I had plans to get a photo with Randy the next day too, I didn\u2019t want to have any green anywhere.

I still continued talking for a while before finally shutting up and letting the others sleep. I just kept on coming up with details I remembered about my coffee moment with Randy or from some other situations. Luckily I did end up falling asleep quite quickly after the lights were shut off and I put my head to the pillow.

<\/a>

Seriously kudos to anyone who managed to read all that...You deserve a medal :D","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/456733.html?view=comments#comments","category":["conventions","planet babylon","randy harrison"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/443215.html","pubDate":"Sat, 15 May 2010 18:46:38 GMT","title":"Petition","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/443215.html","description":"Saw this petition and decided to share it with you too. Copy&pasted the text straight from the confirmation email I got from there. Please consider signing as well and spreading the word. It's sad that countries like this still exist.


Dear Friends,

I have just read and signed the online petition:

\"STOP THE TRIAL AGAINST THE MALAWIAN GAY COUPLE\"

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
service, at:

http:\/\/www.PetitionOnline.com\/ilh605\/<\/a>

I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might
agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider
signing yourself.","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/443215.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/393035.html","pubDate":"Sat, 23 May 2009 18:20:02 GMT","title":"Charity!!!","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/393035.html","description":"While I was at T1 I heard about Jonathan Woodward taking part in a charity at Haiti and about his plans to travel there this summer for two months. He did sell some raffle tickets there to this cause. Now I just found out that a site has been opened to support this cause. Through the page you can donate to the cause. Also the owner of the page is putting some btvs\/ats stuff on sale to Ebay. You can find a link to those on the site as well.

The site is here<\/a>

He's going to Haiti together with The International Association of Human Values<\/a> and is taking part in Project Racine<\/a>

Visit the site to find out more and donate! Every cent counts!

Also please spread the word!","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/393035.html?view=comments#comments","category":"jonathan woodward"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/387403.html","pubDate":"Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:19:10 GMT","title":"Happy belated LJversary for me!","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/387403.html","description":"It was my 5 year LJversary yesterday! Totally forgot all about it. Did remember it still during the weekend but brain was fried yesterday after work and there were no intelligent thoughts going around. Not that I'm saying there's usually intelligent thoughts going around in my head anyway...

So I've been here five years. It really doesn't feel that long. LJ has offered me a place where I can whine when things are down and squee when things are again looking up. I've met so many lovely people through this place and for that I'm very grateful.

I've been told to get a life when I've just sat at home surfing the Web but in my opinion being here has offered me a lot of experiences.

LJ has been a place for me where I can share my fics in peace and there are likeminded people who share my obsessions.

Here I don't get weird glances when I squee over some things, unlike in RL. Or at least I don't see the weird glances here *g*


So in short. Thank you to you all for being here with me! LJ is my home and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon!","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/387403.html?view=comments#comments","category":["2009","personal stuff","lj-birthday","squeeing","random things","friends","lj"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/373304.html","pubDate":"Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:57:25 GMT","title":"Support a good cause","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/373304.html","description":"Sharing this even if I'm not from the US.


\"Fidelity\": Don't Divorce...<\/a> from Courage Campaign<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.


Fidelity: Don't divorce...<\/a>

Watch the video and then go sign the petition<\/a>.

They ask for a zip code in the petition but I guess you can put almost anything there in case you aren't from the US either.","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/373304.html?view=comments#comments","category":"petition"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/356634.html","pubDate":"Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:17:38 GMT","title":"Gale Harold","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/356634.html","description":"You are in my thoughts. Sending lots of positive and healing thoughts your way. Hoping for a speedy recovery!

<\/a><\/center>


GET WELL SOON, GALE!<\/font><\/font><\/center>


[For those who don't know: Gale Harold was in a motorcycle accident on October 14th and is currently recovering from the injuries he sustained. Those of us who call ourselves his fans want to make sure he knows how much we care about him and support him during this time!]<\/font>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/356634.html?view=comments#comments","category":"gale harold"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/352135.html","pubDate":"Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:42:43 GMT","title":"The Hub - Part 4","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/352135.html","description":"Here is the final part of my con report. I do warn you that this is once more a long one. I did try to put as much detail into it as I could remember.

I do hope you enjoy!

There are again some pictures attached to the text.



When I got back to the Park Inn hotel I noticed that they had already stopped the bidding for the Intimate encounters. I quickly checked the results and was very happy to find my own badge number included in the winners. The end price for the bidding ended up being \u00a360. I did realize it was quite a high price for just 45 minutes of sitting in the same room with Gareth but I don't think I'll get another chance to do something like that, I was prepared to make the sacrifice. I had kept well in my budget and actually had pretty much money with me. I was aware that I had overestimated my budget but that's always better than running out of money.

This time I was at the main hall early enough that they hadn't let anyone in yet. Went in when my number range was called and managed to get a seat in the fourth row pretty near the middle aisle. Even if it was one row more from what I had sat the previous night I was pretty sure it was a better seat since I could see the stage better.

The first ones on stage were Naoko, Sara and Anthony. Naoko started with saying that she was very happy Sara had joined the con as well since she had began to feel herself a bit lonely with just men surrounding her. She also kept saying how cute she thought Anthony Lewis was and I had to agree with her. However, it seemed Anthony was a bit embarrassed by the attention and I do think he blushed a little. Naoko continued that she had contacted the casting director almost immediately after reading the script for the episode \u201cTo the last man\" and asked who she was going to play against. The casting director hadn't told her a name but had told her that she would be very pleased. Then Naoko just said that the casting director had been totally right. Once more Anthony blushed a little. He said that he was probably about the color of the carpet they had on the floor which was quite bright red. He was so cute when he felt all embarrassed from the praise Naoko was giving him.

<\/a>

Naoko was asked for some more information about the fact that she had called herself a geek the previous day. AL and SLG were also asked if they would say they were geeks. Naoko immediately said that she was a total geek and proud of it. In her opinion it was actually pretty cool to be a geek. She told us that she practically sleeps with her laptop and doesn't go anywhere without her Nintendo DS lite. There were a few more examples as well but I can't remember them.

Anthony said that he's a total movie geek. He owns quite a lot of movies and they have all been arranged into order by the name of the lead actor in them. He also remarked that his girlfriend was sitting in the hall and had been nodding the whole time he had told about his movies. Anthony also said that he has a habit of watching movies with his laptop beside him so that he can keep checking things from IMDB while he watches. It seemed he was pretty proud of being a geek as well.

At first Sara thought she was an outsider in that group since she couldn't really come up with anything geeky she had a habit of doing. She wanted to be cool too. Suddenly she asked if being obsessed with clothes could be counted as geeky. She was told that it was totally fine so she shared that she has all her clothes arranged by their color in her cupboards. The end conclusion was that they all were geeks and very proud of that fact.

It was once more asked how they coped with working with JB. Sara told that in one scene where Sara's character Carys had been laying on the ground, John had come to stand astride her and while standing there had pulled his pants down. That must have been an interesting experience. Sara also joked that she had actually been a bit afraid what JB would come up with while she sat beside him in the autograph room in the morning. She said that she had been very thankful that John's legs had been hidden under the table and that there were long tablecloths.

John pulling his pants down was a very popular subject in the other responses as well. I've heard it before too but it really seems he loves to surprise his co-stars with that every once in a while. Although, I did get the impression that no one was really surprised anymore when he did that since they had all gotten so used to it already.

Naoko was also asked about working with James Marsters. She said that it had been lovely working with him but she did admit that she had had no idea who he was when he came to the set. She had found only later. People wanted to revoke her geek status.

Unfortunately didn't make notes in this Q&A either so those responses are the only ones I remember. The time again went way too quickly and soon it was time for Naoko, Sara and Anthony to leave the stage. True to form people once more protested but as before it was no use.

As soon as the guests had left the hall I made my way out as well. It was time for my intimate encounter with Gareth. Okay, I knew there was going to be 11 other people as well but I like to think about it as MY Intimate encounter with him. *g*

I was admitted into the room that was prepared for that purpose and got a cup of coffee for myself. Slowly the room was filled with the other people who had \"won\" the encounter. Finally Gareth entered the room as well. He entered the room really carefully and tried to pretend he was scared of us. His first words to us were something like: \"Isn't anyone minding us?\" When someone from the crew entered the room a few seconds later Gareth immediately said; \"Thank God you got here, I was just about to be gangraped.\" That just got some good natured laughs out of us.

The session was started. In the beginning Gareth asked how much we had ended up paying for the session. He seemed quite surprised that we had actually paid \u00a360 for just to sit in a room with him. He continued that he had been very surprised when someone had paid \u00a3540 just to sit opposite to him at the dinner. He said that he had mainly just smoked the whole time. He also commented that one of the attendees in the Intimate encounter was obviously nuts since she took part in both of Gareth's sessions that day. She paid \u00a3106 together for the meetings.

One of the first questions Gareth was asked was about the play the previous night. Someone asked if the kisses with JB and KO had been scripted. Gareth's response to that was; \"I didn't kiss Kai, or did I?\" When we told him that he had done just that he just said that he must have been pretty drunk since he didn't remember doing that. He also told us that he had had no memory of the mooning either and had been quite surprised when someone told him about it in the morning. Someone then told him that he had actually done the mooning in other places besides the stage too. He tried to deny it but there had been too many witnesses.

From there he went to say that just the story line of the sketch had been scripted and that they had added quite a lot of stuff by themselves. The kissing had been one of those parts. He also told us that doing the play had been totally voluntary. They had been asked to do it but they could have well said no. I, for one, am very grateful they did it. At the same time Gareth asked us if we knew if someone taped the show despite it not being allowed. We all said that we at least weren't aware of anyone filming. One attendee also told Gareth that there was a pack going on among the attendees that if someone saw a taping of the show somewhere, they would immediately report it and make sure it was taken down.

GDL was asked if there would be lots of Ianto & Jack moments on the third season. Possible spoiler for season three.<\/b> Again paint over the text to see it. In my opinion not really a spoiler but being careful. GDL told us that the pace on season three was so hectic that there really was really no time for any tender moments between them and since it's only five episodes they have concentrated more on the action part. He did reveal that there's one scene where they have a guest actor who obviously is also interested in some private time with Jack but both Ianto and this guest actor refuse to leave the other one alone with Jack. GDL used the pronoun \"he\" when he talked about this guest actor so it's a male. That was all he revealed. <\/font>

Other topics under discussion included the school system in the UK and its problems which went a bit over my head since I really don't know that much about that. GDL also revealed that at first his parents and teachers hadn't been too supportive of him. Especially his teachers had put him down pretty much. He had grown in an area where being different wasn't tolerated that well. Some of his friends had reacted a bit badly when it came out that Ianto was actually a bi\/gay character.

Gareth had been disappointed that all the shooting in the third season was done with CGI. He had enjoyed shooting the Daleks in the Doctor Who season four finale very much. On the third season they just had to pretend to be shooting and the bullets would be added there later with computers.

Next he told us about some projects he had in the US. Or he told us that there are some projects going on. He didn't reveal anything else. He promised that if some of them came to something, he would let people know. He was quite tight lipped about it.

Next on the list was season four for Torchwood. Gareth told us that it hadn't been confirmed yet. The future of the show depends on the success of the third season. He still told us that he wants to be on it very much if it gets done and his other possible projects give him time to do it. This was followed by a question that did Gareth's enthusiasm to do the fourth season mean that Ianto survives the third season alive. His only response was that it's a scifi show, anything can happen.

I guess there were other subjects as well but those are the only ones I could remember. After the Intimate Encounter ended I made my way back to the main hall since Gareth's and Kai's Q&A was starting soon. I did catch the end of the Q&A that was going on in the main hall that had all the \"Weevil actors\" and John's body double in it. Unfortunately can't remember any questions that they were asked and I only caught two or three questions before they left the stage.

<\/a>

After a small break Kai and Gareth took the stage. During that break I noticed that I actually had a pen and some paper in my bag. I could finally take notes!

Kai arrived to the stage first and the called Gareth there. He arrived there with a sheep handcuffed to his wrist and he claimed that he missed Wales. Pretty quickly he started asking if anyone had the key to the handcuffs. When a key was found it was handed to Kai who started to open the cuffs. Gareth kept saying \"harder\" and making obscene noises all the while. Finally the cuffs were off.

Gareth started the panel by asking who in the audience had woken up that morning with their clothes on. There were a few responses. Next they asked who had woken up with someone else's clothes on. Kai raised his hand at that point. As the last option Gareth asked who had woken up naked that morning and raised his own hand to that.

Finally they both got seated. There were still four chairs on the stage and Kai and Gareth sat so that they left one chair empty between them. They claimed that chair was reserved for JB. They continued that with making fun of how JB always wants to sit in the middle and be the center of attention. They mocked the announcement JB had done earlier that day when he had been signing autographs. They remembered pretty well what he had said. And naturally got people howling from laughter since they overdid it totally. In the end Gareth said almost inaudibly \"He's so going to kill me.\" There was also some talk about how Kai had received his first gay kiss the previous night. Gareth then added to that that Kai had also gotten his first gay rimming job at the same time.

<\/a>

Then it was finally question time. The first question was about hang over remedies and they were asked for any recommendations. They did agree that \"hair of the dog\" was one of the best hang over remedies there was but if that wasn't possible they did have a few other suggestions as well that went over my head since I think they were some brands I wasn't familiar with.


<\/a>

Gareth was asked if he would want to play James Bond some day. His answer was that \"he would love to get it on with James Bond\". He once more tried to act all innocent and injured when people laughed at his choice of words and accused people of having dirty minds.

Naturally since JB wasn't in the event anymore there were quite a few questions regarding him and stuff he had pulled at the set. Kai told us that JB kept whispering obscenities to him every time he passed while they were filming some scene where Kai needed to concentrate really hard. That of course destroyed his concentration totally and he ended up needing several takes. Gareth shared that they had had a competition with JB to see who could get the other one crack worse on the set. They had a habit of sending each other pictures of certain part of their anatomy in various states of arousal while one of them had a break from shooting and the other one was supposed to be doing some scenes. GDL was adamant that he had won the competition.

Next they were both asked what their favorite and least favorite body parts were. Kai told us that he liked his legs and hated his eyebrows. GDL went to great lengths describing how he hated the shape of his head. He said he had a problem with a hanging forehead and then the back of his head was totally flat. His favorite body part was his calves. He rolled his pants up a little to show us. Got him a few whistles. Kai obviously wanted his share as well because he got up from his chair, opened his pants and dropped them down. He was wearing some very nice black briefs underneath. He posed for a while to make sure everyone saw his great legs before pulling his pants up again Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture of the situation. I concentrated on ogling too much. When Kai was again sitting down Gareth decided he wanted similar attention as well and pulled his pants down as well. He stood with his back towards the audience claiming that he had piss stains on the front of his briefs and didn't want us seeing those. He was wearing nice white briefs and had good legs as well.

And here's proof. Okay, you can't see his legs but you see his briefs *g*
<\/a>

When they both again had pants on there were more questions. Gareth was asked if Blue Gillespie (his band) was going to do gigs outside Wales some day. He told us that they would love to and if anyone was interested in organizing gigs for them somewhere else they should just contact him. The possibility of Blue Gillespie being there for Hub 2 was raised. GDL asked if people would be interested if they did come. That got a very interested response.

Isn't he just adorable! *happy sigh*
<\/a>

Then they were asked what were their favorite presents they had received from fans and had there been any weird gifts. KO told us that he had gotten an inflatable chair from someone during that con he had liked a lot. He also said that he had actually liked practically all the gifts he had ever received. There weren't any gifts he had disliked he could remember. GDL said that he had enjoyed the whiskey people had given him. There had also been some pictures people had drawn and painted he had liked quite a lot.

GDL was then asked how it had been working with James Marsters. He said it had been really fun and that they had become good friends with James during the shooting. He said that he hoped James would come and visit him again soon. James' manager is representing Gareth as well in the US and has gotten him some interviews that might get his foot in the door. He again didn't say anything else about those projects. GDL did say that he didn't care about the music James does that much, with tongue in cheek.

Then there was some singing. Didn't know the song Gareth sang but it was quite obvious quite a few others did since they sang along.

Next they were asked about their favorite movies. Didn't write down what GDL answered but Kai answered that he especially liked romantic movies. That got him a big \"awwwwwwww\" reaction from the audience and he was obviously quite satisfied with the response. GDL made fun of him how he had obviously planned the whole thing. It had been seen during the weekend how the guys were obviously envious of how Naoko kept getting the \"awwwwww\" reaction to almost anything she said while the guys didn't get that reaction. Kai was happy that he finally got his own reaction from the audience.

Next the analyzed their own performance in the series and tried to come up with their favorite moments. Unfortunately I didn't write those down and I've totally forgotten what they were and what was said.

The end of the Q&A was coming when Kai was reminded that he had promised that he would sing the song \"Hyms & Arias\" on stage. He claimed he wasn't drunk enough for that. He actually told us that he was totally sober due to the fact that he needed to drive that night. GDL immediately told him that was what happened when you didn't have representation. He was heading home as well that night but he had a driver and that's why he could well drink as much as he liked. Anyway, after some persuasion Kai did sing the song. The audience joined him for the chorus. Missed most of the words but did try to sing along with the chorus. When the song finished Kai told us that it was probably the first time he sang that song sober and was surprised he had been able to remember the words. He did have a pretty good singing voice in my opinion. After that the panel finished.

There was again a small break before all the guests that were still present arrived to the stage together. This time Paul Kasey took the middle seat and got some comments from GDL for that.


<\/a>

One of the first questions was an inquiry about the therapy needs or survival methods they had needed on set to deal with JB. Naoko told us that slowly it all just becomes \"white noise\". GDL's immediate response to that was to say \"racist\". His own answer to the question was in line with \"Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and relax the best you can.\" He enhanced his answer with some very expressive facial expressions and other movements. Use your imagination\u2026

People still kept reacting to almost anything Naoko said with an \"awwww\" reaction. She was actually getting a bit frustrated with that since she didn't think there was anything \"awwwww\" worthy in her answers. It had just become a joke in the whole event. GDL and KO also continued their joke from the previous day about falling asleep while Naoko gave her answers since she had a tendency to ramble on a little and get lost from the subject. She wasn't too impressed by that.

All the guests were asked who their idols were but I can't remember any of their answers and I didn't write them down.

GDL told us that he loves football almost as much as bowel movement. Don't really know what to think about that.

The guests were asked what would they write into a personal add. Managed to record some of their answers:

Ian: big, strong and very long
Anthony: If you shake me up very well, I will explode
Paul: If you fancy some monster time

Next they were asked who of the Torchwood cast they would change body with. Eve Myles was a very popular answer. GDL and Kai said that they would change bodies with Naoko. With their hand gestures they implied it was due to her breasts. That made Naoko hide her face into her hands.

The guests were also asked which performance they would delete. Naoko immediately told us that she would like to delete her performance just now since she had an urgent need to pee. She was given permission to leave the stage to use the bathroom. While she was gone Kai tried to get everyone to leave the room so that she would be totally confused when she returned.

Then the guests were asked what role they would like to do some day. GDL said that he would like to do McBeth someday. To that SLG said that she would like to do the role of Lady McBeth mostly because how she \"fucks McBeth over\". There had been some sniping going on between GDL and SLG for a while already. It seemed Naoko was a bit uncomfortable sitting between them. (For those who weren't aware of it GDL and SLG used to date). After a while GDL ended up apologizing to SLG and telling her his intention hadn't been to be mean and assured the audience that there was no bad blood between them and that they were still friends. That was a small uncomfortable moment.


<\/a>

One more thing I've written down was that the guests were asked about their mottos. Didn't write any down but I can remember that one of the guests replied that his\/her motto was: \"Live every day like it was your last.\" I like that motto and could well adapt it myself too.

Then the last panel was unfortunately over. All the guests stood on the stage for a while and gave their thanks. There were lots of cheers and people clapping. Then they walked off the stage. Right after that the organizers got to the stage to give their own thanks. They told us that we had been a very good audience and guests thought so too. No one had tried to mob the guests if they wandered around the place during the parties.

They also had a small surprise in the form of a video message from JB. In the message JB also gave his thanks and said that he had been pleasantly surprised by people giving him space when he needed it. No one had tried to mob him either. Then there were some comments about James Marsters. JB said that he has heard stories where James had claimed that he had bit John's lip during their kissing scene. John said that he had bit James as well. He continued to say that kissing James hadn't been any different from kissing a girl but did say James had been pretty nervous during the scene. He had had some stubble as well. JB ended the whole story by saying that James had obviously needed to reaffirm his manhood since he had escaped to kiss his girlfriend right after the scene had been filmed. JB said that the film crew had appreciated the porn show (his words) James had put up with his girlfriend.

Then it was all over and I made my way back to my hotel to change some clothes and possibly dinner. We thought about going to the hotel lobby again but then ended up going to this pizza place after all. It took a while before our pizzas were ready and it wasn't anything special. I did realize it was actually the only proper meal I had eaten during the whole weekend if you didn't count the breakfasts. Couldn't eat the whole pizza since I felt so stuffed from it.

After eating we went back to the Park Inn hotel to the last disco. Pretty soon after we got there it was obvious most people had left after the closing ceremonies. There really weren't many people in the hall. First I hung around the bar for a while but then went to take a seat in the main hall near one of the walls. Hadn't been sitting there long before GDL stormed the hall and told everyone to dance. Did get up and went to the dance floor for a while. The music wasn't anything special but I did stay there for a few songs before sitting down again.

Was feeling restless so I kept getting up and walking around most of the time. Did talk a bit with the Finnish girl I had met during the weekend. At some point we realized that we had actually met once before in an event organized in Finland a few years back. I was a bit embarrassed that I had no memory of meeting her before.

After the party had gone on for a while GDL took the mike and said that he needed to be going soon. He did tell he was going to punchfuck everyone who wanted that and told us to get in line for that.

He left the hall for a while but soon he was back saying that he really needed to go now. He also said that he was sorry but the punchfuck wasn't going to happen since the hotel management had told him that he might get into trouble for that J He promised that to make up for that he would sing us one of the songs by Blue Gillespie. He got the DJ to play one of the songs from a tape and sang over it. If you want to hear their music go to their Myspace-page here<\/a> I had heard the song he sang, Bam bam, a few times before since I friended the band some time ago in Myspace. It isn't my favorite of their songs but it was still nice hearing him sing it.

After the song Gareth had some difficulties making it out of the room since so many people wanted to hug him. I stayed well back since I wanted to keep to the guidelines of not harassing the guests to the end.

After Gareth left the party started to die down. I still stayed there for a while and talked with people but soon tiredness began to get the best of me. I walked back to the hotel with the other Finnish girl. At the hotel we talked for a while before saying our good byes. At my room I once more noticed that my key card wasn't working. It had been doing that quite a lot during the weekend. Luckily I heard that the TV was still on in the room so I guessed that <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> was still awake. I knocked and she let me in.

Headed into bed pretty soon after that. I guess the fact that I hadn't slept that well for several nights was getting to me. I knew I needed to pack since all my stuff was spread all over my half of the room but I also knew there would be plenty of time for that the next morning since I only needed to leave the hotel after 1pm. Sleep did come pretty quickly.


Monday 20.10.2008

Again woke up way too early and then just waited for the clock to be enough so that I could get up and start packing without disturbing <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> too much. Finally I decided I could get up and start doing something useful. I started with doing my check-in for my flight. Wanted a window seat so I needed to be early with that.

After a while we went for breakfast downstairs. Again didn't get much eaten but at least I did try. Then it was time for packing. Somehow it felt like the stuff I had with me had multiplied during the weekend and I had hard time fitting it all into my luggage. Somehow I managed to get everything into it and even the luggage closed.

A bit after ten o'clock <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> left since she wanted to avoid the rush hour traffic. I was left alone in the room. I had agreed with the reception that I could keep the room until half past one so there was no rush anywhere. I spent the time by writing this report, watching some TV and reading. Somehow it felt like the time went really slowly but finally I decided I could well start walking towards the bus station. I had no idea where my bus would leave from there so I wanted to be early.

Walking to the bus station was pretty taxing since it felt like my luggage weighted a ton. Had some trouble pulling it behind me and soon my arms were hurting quite a lot. However, somehow I made it to the bus station. Had to ask directions to the right place for my bus but luckily found it pretty easily. There were other people waiting for it as well. I was there pretty early but in my opinion that was better than being late.

I was a bit nervous about the bus trip since I only had about 1\u00bd hours at the airport to catch my plane. I really hoped the bus wouldn't be late. When the time for the bus to leave went by and there was no sign of the bus I began to get nervous. Luckily the bus showed up finally and we got on our way. It was raining pretty heavily and I hoped that wouldn't slow us down more.

The bus trip went pretty smoothly except for the annoying kid who kept kicking my seat every once in a while. Luckily he sat there only for a while. We made it to Heathrow just five minutes behind the schedule. I started walking towards the right terminal with brisk pace. Of course my luck was that the desk I needed to go to drop my luggage was about the furthest away in the hall. I was really getting sick of pulling my luggage behind me.

Finally I had my ticket and my luggage checked in and I made my way towards the security check. I had been afraid there would be long lines but to my surprise there were just a few people before me. I put my stuff on the line and walked through the metal detector. I had forgotten to remove my belt and I'm pretty sure that made the device beep. I was then searched but allowed to go further pretty quickly. As soon as I made it to the transit hall I took a seat near one of the screens that showed the gates for the flights. I noticed that it had only taken me 20 minutes to get from the bus terminal to the transit area so there was plenty of time.

When I opened my shoulder bag I noticed that I had forgotten to throw away the bottle of water I had with me. My bag had obviously been too full since they hadn't seen that in the security check. It didn't bother me since I could then enjoy the water and didn't have to buy more.

Had to wait for my gate to show up on the screen for a while but finally had to right direction to go to and walked to the gate. I was probably one of the last who made it there. Took my seat and tried to get comfortable.

The flight went alright. Did feel pretty tired and actually nodded off at some point. The only food they gave us in the plane was a sandwich. I had hoped for something more but had to do with that. Noticed that I had accidentally packed all my food to my luggage so I couldn't eat those either. Didn't feel that hungry but again the only thing I had eaten that day had been the breakfast.

Got to Helsinki in schedule. We had to wait for our bags for a while but finally I had my luggage and could get into the taxi queue. Luckily there were quite a few taxis coming all the time so it didn't take long before I was on my way to my parents' house.

My intention had been to go straight to bed but of course I just had to check my e-mails before that. Ended up staying up for a while still and knew that the next morning was going to be hell.


This concludes my con report. I do hope you've enjoyed!

<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/352135.html?view=comments#comments","category":"the hub"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/351236.html","pubDate":"Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:55:06 GMT","title":"The Hub - Part 3","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/351236.html","description":"Here is the first part of Sunday. RL has been crazy and I haven't gotten around writing the rest of Sunday yet. Will try to get it up during the weekend but here is my Sunday morning. Nothing too exciting *g*

Once more I've sometimes used just the initials of the guests. The new ones are:

SLG=Sara Lloyd-Gregory
AL=Anthony Lewis

Sunday 19.10.2008





Even if I had been really tired and hadn't been sleeping well I again woke up at about 5am and didn't sleep after that. Unfortunately that meant that I only slept for about four hours and managed to get even more sleep deprived. I did lay in bed until half past seven and then got up and started my morning routines. Then it was down to breakfast. Really didn't feel like eating anything but ate anyway since I knew I needed the food. After forcing some food down my throat I made my way to the Park Inn once more. I started from the registration desk and bought a few extra autos so that I could get everything I wanted signed. I went to see if they were already letting people into the autograph room but when I saw that wasn't the case I went to see if I could get the photos I hadn't gotten the previous night. Those were found quite quickly so I then had everything collected and I headed to line up for the autographs. On my way there I put up my bid for an Intimate Encounter with Gareth later that day. Was prepared to put quite a lot of amount to that since I wanted to make sure I got there. I started with bidding \u00a360.

My goal of the morning was to get the rest of my autographs. I had asked <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> to give her autograph card to me so that I could get some extra autographs from some of the guests. I know it wasn't really right of me to do that but since she wasn't going to use the card I decided to take advantage of it.

I was aware that there would be limit on at least JB's autos. The general guidelines said that you were allowed three autos at a time and only after everyone had gone through, was it possible to go and get more autos. From what I had seen about the autograph situation with JB it seemed that he might not even got through everyone during the time that he was still signing.

As soon as they started with the autographs I joined the group going inside the autograph room and tried to join the queue for JB. Pretty soon they announced that in case people wanted autos from other people too they should go and get those first. I was still missing autos from Kai, Naoko, Paul and of course from Sara Lloyd-Gregory and Anthony Lewis who had only joined the convention for the Sunday. Since JB was signing for three hours I decided that I could well wait for a while. I first joined the queue for Kai and got him to sign my DVD boxes and a 10x8 of him as Rhys. After I got through that line I noticed that Gareth didn't have much queue in front of him so I decided to get the picture that had been taken of him and me signed. I again used <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span>\u2018s auto card for and that meant that I got the auto for free. GDL looked a bit tired and when I asked about that from him, he did admit that he was a bit tired. Next I tried to join the queue for Anthony Lewis but I was told that he was taking a small break and the queue was closed for the moment. So instead of that I went to queue for Sara Lloyd-Gregory. She looked really petite and she seemed to be smiling all the time. Got tongue tied again a bit and couldn't get anything else said than that it was nice meeting her. I got her just to sign a 10x8 of her from Torchwood.

At that point Anthony Lewis was already coming back and I went to join his queue. Did have to wait for a while since some other people had gotten there as well. Finally it was my turn for the auto. I had just a 10x8 for him as well. I had a post-it that had my name on it and Anthony almost immediately asked where my name was from. When I told him that I was from Finland he also asked me if I was there just for the convention. After that he told me that he liked my name and thought it was beautiful. I thanked him and was probably a bit red on the face. I told him that it was nice meeting him and then proceeded to the next queue.

I had to choose between the queue for Naoko and Paul Kasey. In the end I went to Paul Kasey first since his queue was a bit shorter one. I had bought one extra auto for him so I got him to sign my series 2 DVD box and a 10x8 of him in the blowfish costume.

Naoko's line was still long but I joined it and prepared myself for a small wait. Luckily it didn't take that long after all and I got both my DVD boxes signed by her as well as a 10x8 of her as Toshiko.

At that point I had all the autos I wanted except for the extra autos from JB. I saw that his line had gotten really long but joined the end of it anyway. Only managed to stand there for a few minutes before one of the crew came to cut the line short. They said it was blocking the way, which it sort of was. We were told to return after about five minutes. I went to sit down for a while near one of the walls in the room to wait. After I saw a few people joining the queue without them being told to leave it I joined the end of the queue as well. The queue progressed pretty slowly but finally I was in front of JB's desk again. They were trying to keep a fast pace going on with John and there was actually two crew members handling the queue.

I had sort of hoped that JB wouldn't remember me since I didn't want to get busted for being there for the second time since you weren't allowed to do that. However, as soon as he saw me he said \u201cHello again!\" I greeted him as well. I got a 10x8 of him as Captain Jack and our photo together signed. Couldn't really come up with anything else to say since my brain had again abandoned me so I just complimented him on the show the previous night. I did tell him that I had missed some parts of it due to language problems. He then asked me if the visual had been good as least. I told him that the visual had definitely made up for the parts I had missed and filled gaps very nicely. He just laughed and told me that he was happy that I had enjoyed the show. He was wearing a really nice and soft looking pink sweater but I do think it might have been frowned upon if I had asked if I could touch it so I had to restrain myself from doing that.

At that point I had all the autos I had wanted but since there were still spaces in <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span>\u2018s autograph card I decided that I could get a few more extras. First I went to Kai to get him to sign the photo of us together. I had forgotten to put the post-it with my name on the picture but he obviously remembered seeing me before and just asked how it was that I spelled my name again. I quickly got the post-it out and showed it to him.

Next I took advantage of the fact that I still had plenty of time and got Anthony Lewis to sign my series two DVD box with a free autograph from the card I had. I repeated the same with Sara Lloyd-Gregory to the series 1 DVD box.

I still wanted Paul Kasey to sign series 1 DVD box and Naoko to sign our picture together. However, they were in a photo shoot so I had to wait for a while. I sat again near one of the walls to organizes the autos and photos I already had.

While I was sitting there JB made an announcement that unfortunately his time was slowly running out and that he would need to head out soon. He apologized for that and promised that if there was anyone who didn't get his auto the organizers would get their addresses marked on the items they wanted signed and those would be delivered to them as soon as JB got them signed.

About 20 minutes after that announcement it was time for JB to vacate the premises. He told everyone bye and got quite a few responses as well as a loud applause. On his way out he hugged Kai and Gareth. He also kissed Gareth one more time and they got some wolf whistles for that. JB obviously knows his audience *g* Then he was out of the door. It was a shame that he needed to leave early since it would have been nice to have him on stage for the second time as well but I'm happy with what I got. He could have cancelled totally after he found out that he needed to go to LA.

Afterwards I did feel a bit bad about the fact that I had gone and got the extra autographs since it seemed not everyone was able to go there even for the first time but of course at that point it couldn't be helped anymore.

Finally Paul Kasey and Naoko came back from their photo shoots and I was able to get the last autos I wanted. When I was standing by Naoko's table she complimented how good my skin looked at the picture. I tried to tell her that it was just due to the make up I was wearing but she told me it was nonsense. In her opinion my skin looked really great. I again blushed a little and thanked her.

Things were winding down and there was a lunch break coming. I went to check how the bidding was going for the Intimate Encounter with Gareth. There was space for 12 people in that group and I counted that at the moment I was ninth with my bid. Decided to raise it a little to make sure I really got there and bid \u00a380. With that I raised a few spots on the list and could be more certain that of my success.

After that I headed for the hotel to leave some stuff there and see what <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> was up to. It came out she had only just woken up. I do envy her ability to sleep. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry so we just hung at the hotel until I again needed to make up my way back to the Park Inn for the Q&As.

TBC

<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/351236.html?view=comments#comments","category":"the hub"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/350246.html","pubDate":"Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:08:16 GMT","title":"The Hub - Part 2","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/350246.html","description":"Here's the next part of my report. There are again a few photos. You can get them bigger by clicking on them. Also I do have to warn you, this one is looooooong. And there's also one small possibly spoilerish thing in there about season three but I've hid that one. You can see it by painting over the text at that point.

Will start by saying that JB's laugh is the most wonderful thing in the world! And very infectious. I can't really describe it but if you've even heard him laughing, you know what I mean. And we heard a lot of his laughing during the weekend. He also had this adorable way of saying \"Hee!\" every once in a while. Made me swoon every single time. Yeah, a hopeless fangirl here...but proud of it!


I've also used at some parts just the initials of the guests. You probably know these all but I'm still including them here *g*

JB=John Barrowman
GDL=Gareth David-Lloyd
NM=Naoko Mori
KO=Kai Owen


Saturday 18.10.2008



Woke up at four am because I was freezing. I noticed that <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> had left the window open. the curtains were also open so there was too much light coming into the room added to the cold air and noise from the window. I went to close the window and found out that <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> had left the window open on purpose. I closed it anyway and went back to bed and tried to sleep some more. That didn\u2019t work out too well. I don\u2019t think I slept at all after that. When my alarm went off I went to put my make up and clothes on and then made my way to the Park Inn for the breakfast. Met some people I had met the previous night there.

After breakfast I went to pick up the photo tickets I had pre-bought and then bought some more autograph tickets. Then it was time for waiting. The whole morning was reserved for autos and photo shoots. My goal was to get all the photos done and as much as possible of the autos. All the ticket holders were divided into groups and you were supposed to get your autos and photos according to those groups. When I checked the timetable it looked like my group was among the first ones to be called to most of the things.

First I got my photo taken with Gareth. One photo was included in my ticket price and I had bought an extra one as well. After the first photo was taken I asked Gareth if he minded if we changed sides. He didn't so I got one photo taken so that I was standing on his left side and then actually two photos with me standing on his right side since the photographer wanted to take another shot. Only after I got out of the photo shoot I realized that I had forgotten to take my badge off as well as my sweater. Didn't really matter but I had planned to take them off.

Almost immediately after that photo shoot I went to take photos with Kai. This time I remembered to take my badge and sweater off. I had two photos with him too. Once more I got the first photo standing on his other side and then asked if we could change sides. We did and I got the other photo taken. Kai did tell me he liked my style with the asking of changing poses.

After those photo shoots it was time for some autos. Got one from Jack Montgomery, who played young Jack, and Andy Jones, who has played a weevil in the series. They were both bonus guests. Had to pay extra for those. Next ones on my list were Ian Hilditch, who is John's body double and Richard Tunesi who has also played Weevil roles. Ian asked about my name and I explained that it was actually a Swedish name but that I was from Finland. He asked me if I had come there just for the convention and then he asked if Torchwood had a big following in Finland. I had to tell him that it didn't really have. Of course I don't know for a fact but I'm guessing it's a pretty marginal thing. I also told him that they are only showing it after 11pm.

Then it was time for some photo shoots again. First one was Naoko. Only had one photo with her. She complimented the necklace I was wearing. Straight from that photo shoot I went to take a photo with Paul Kasey. He's the resident Weevil.

Then it was again to the autograph lines. First one was Lachlan Nieboer who played Gray, Jack's brother. He looked pretty gorgeous in RL. Got a bit tongue tied and didn't come up with anything intelligent to say. Not the first time that has happened *g* Got him to sign a picture taken out of the series.

After Lachlan it was time for another gorgeous guy, Gareth. I had bought two extra auto tickets for him so I got him to sign my both DVD boxes and a 10x8 of him as Ianto. Just when I was getting my autos JB started shouting something about his friend being up for voting in Strictly Come Dancing. He sort of got everyone's attention with that. He had printed out fliers advertising the whole thing with phone numbers and all. Lost my chance to talk with Gareth with that since I was already told to move on when John had passed. Of course I didn't really have anything intelligent to say to Gareth either. I don't think telling him that he looks gorgeous can be counted as intelligent and at that point there wasn't much else in my mind.

My plan was to join John's queue next but I was told that his queue was closed for the moment since he needed to be at a photo shoot soon. They told me that he would be back soon.

Instead of that I went to wait for John's photo shoot to start since I had two tickets for that as well. Managed to get into that shoot pretty quickly. Once more I repeated the request that we take the other shoot with me standing on the other side of John instead of the side where the first photo was taken. John suggested that I stand in front of him instead. That was more than fine with me. He set his hands on my shoulders. I barely got out of the room after that since my legs felt a bit shaky.

Then it was time for a photo shoot with Lachlan. Another weak leg moment for me since he really is quite good looking. I do think he looks quite a lot better in RL than he looked in Torchwood.

After that photo shoot I had to hang around for a while and just wait. My plan was to go and get John's autograph but when I went to the autograph room they told me that he wouldn't be signing anymore and that I would have to come back at a later stage when he had another autograph session.

While I waited I visited the bathroom. While I was in one of the stalls I heard someone cursing in the cubicle next to me. Soon after that I was asked if there was any toilet paper in my stall. I answered in the affirmative and handed a roll of toilet paper over. While I was washing my hands I saw a woman stepping out of the cubicle. She thanked me again and then told me that I could tell my friends that I had just handed toilet paper to Captain Jack's sister. It came out that she was John's sister. I probably said something really stupid to that. I can't remember.

Finally it was time for the group shot which meant that all the guests present were in the photo with me. Had to line up for a while for that but finally it was my turn to step in the middle of them. When I went to stand on my place John told me to step back. I did take a few steps back but I was afraid I was going to step on their toes. I also had a problem with my hands. I had no idea what to do with them. Usually in the other photos I could wrap my arms around the guests' waist or something but now I couldn't do that. In the end I just held them in front of me. The photo was taken quickly and I was free to leave.

At that point there was nothing on. There was a lunch break marked on the program for the next hour. I quickly made my way back to my own hotel to see <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span>. We talked about going for lunch again but my stomach had been playing up most of the morning and I really didn't feel like eating. We left the hotel and walked around the town for a while. Didn't find anything really interesting. Finally I decided to return to the Park Inn for the first panels. Since John was going to be the first one I wanted to be there on time to get a good seat. I got there about 15 minutes before the panel started. Unfortunately for me they had already started letting people inside so I didn't get that good a seat. I was in the third row but at the other end pretty far from the stage. Still I was pretty sure I would be able to hear most of it and even take some photos. It was better than sitting at the back of the hall or something.

Naturally people went a bit crazy when JB got on the stage. He did seem to like the attention and posed for pictures for a while. Flash photography was allowed for a few minutes and people really took advantage of it. I took my photos without the flash since in my opinion they came out better that way. Unfortunately I didn't make notes of the Q&A and I've totally forgotten what John was asked and what he answered. In any case I know I did laugh a lot and there were lots of double entendres. To my surprise there weren't any questions about James Marsters. Of course it's possible people had submitted some questions about that but since the questions were being asked by the MC it is possible those questions just weren't picked. Or then people think all questions about James have already been asked. Too late I realized that it could have been fun to ask which one, Gareth or James, was a better kisser.

I do remember there were some questions about John's TV watching habits and his opinion about reality TV. He told us that he loves to watch himself in TV and even follows Big Brother. Then there were some questions about his work on the \"How do you solve a problem like Maria?\" and \"Any dream will do.\" shows. JB told us that there's something new on the works that will come in 2010.

John told about his dog Captain Jack who he claims behaves pretty much the same way than the \"real\" Captain Jack. One example he told us was that the dog likes laying on his back and have his nuts tickled. And there's a direct quote: \"Just like his big dad.\" Lots of laughing both from the audience and John. Then he noticed that there was a little girl sitting in the front row and he told her that her mother would explain it to her later and continued to say that he was talking about cashews.

Then he told a touching story about his and Scott's dogs. Their dog Lewis died earlier this year and Scott had been really down about it and they had talked about getting another black cocker spaniel. They searched for it all over UK and finally John found a breeder in Cardiff of all places. He hadn't told Scott about it and just blindfolded him and took him to see the puppy. When John had taken the blindfold off and Scott had seen the puppy, he had burst into tears. They named the puppy Harris. That had a story behind it too. Up in Scotland there's an isle called Lewis. Beside it is another isle called Harris. They are connected to each other via an isthmus that has a road called Scott on it. *sniff* People were quite touched by that story.

John also shared the insightful thought of him having to keep Scott happy, since he keeps him happy. That was pretty sweet too.

John also told about his plans in the US and that he's having some talks with some studios about some projects. That was actually also why JB wasn't going to be present all weekend. He was flying to US on Sunday afternoon. I think it's great that he did come to the convention anyway even if he had to leave early.

John was asked if it was hard doing scenes with green screen. He told us that he has no trouble with it since he has a good imagination but also told us that sometimes it's fun when they get guest actors who aren't used to the green screen and they have hard time imaging what is going to be there and it shows on their reactions.

I just love his expression on this photo...
<\/a>

Then there was some talk about JB's cars. He has six cars at the moment and they are all pretty posh. He has a black Porsche which will actually be seen in season 3 of Torchwood. Then he has a DeLorean (my inner fangirl squeed at that), Mercedes convertible and a Boxter.

Unfortunately for us the time went way too fast and people were really disappointed when the MC told us that time had run out. John was on our side and told him that he could answer a few more questions. When the MC's response to that was that Kai, Gareth and Naoko were already waiting for their turn, John just said that we could keep them waiting. He was more important \uf04a The MC gave him a few more questions but then John really had to leave the stage. He ended his appearance on the stage with a third season spoiler. (If you want to read, paint over the text. Not a real spoiler in my opinion but just in case someone minds) He revealed that we are going to see Captain Jack naked. Not surprisingly that got a big applause and whistling.<\/font>

As soon as John was off the stage quite a few people left the hall as well since it was time for John to sign autographs. I joined that queue as well despite the fact that I know that I was going to miss at least part of Kai's, Gareth's and Naoko's Q&A. Still I did want to get my autos from John that night. The line advanced pretty slowly but finally it was my turn. I had the both DVD boxes for John to sign as well as John's autobiography. His sister was signing as well so I got her auto to my book as well. John asked me if I had enjoyed my time and I told him that I had had wonderful time. I also told both John and Carolyn that I had loved the book. They thanked me for that. I'm sure they've heard that a few times before\u2026

As soon as I had my autos I made my way back to the main hall where the Kai Owen, Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori's Q&A was well on it's way. Still didn't take notes so not too clear memories of what was being asked. There were some references to JB playing pranks on people and how he didn't seem to be able to keep his pants on. Naoko's comment was that it's amazing what you can get used to when you are exposed to something almost constantly. They were also asked about their other projects. Naoko was asked if she would be willing to do another musical someday and Gareth was asked about his band Blue Gillespie. Naoko did tell us that she could do another musical but didn't have any specific one she would want to do. Gareth said that the band was doing fine and that they would have an album coming in the near future. I did end up missing most of the Q&A due to getting JB's autos and can't really remember that much of it.


<\/a>

I can remember that Gareth was asked where he thought Ianto lived since that had never been shown. All the other Torchwood members have their apartments but there has never been any hints of where Ianto lives. Gareth commented that he sort of likes that Ianto has been kept so mysterious and there hasn't been many things revealed about him. He did say that in his opinion Ianto lives somewhere in the Hub but in his opinion Ianto should live in Jack's manhole since he's in and out of it all the time anyway. Not too surprising that got a huge laugh out of people. I'm guessing that was Gareth's purpose all along. He also told us that we learn some more things about Ianto's past on the third season.

There was also a question about how many languages they were able to speak. Naoko said that she sort of knows five languages but only Japanese and English well and then some French. GDL and Kai Owen just said that they can speak English and Welsh.

The question for Naoko about her willingness to do more musicals was asked by a girl named Lisa. GDL started calling for \"Lisa\" the way he had done in the Cybergirl episode. He kept looking around just the way he had done in the ep.

Once more there were protests when the MC told us that we had run out of time with the guests. Even KO, GDL and NM joined in the protests saying that it was unfair JB had had 45 minutes all by himself while they had to divide their 45 minutes with each other. The MC pretty much ignored their protests and with a huge applause they left the stage.

Next on the stage were Paul Kasey, Lachlan Nieboer and Jack Montgomery. Lachlan told about his first meeting with JB and how John's first comment had been \"Oh, he looks just like me!\". Lachlan even imitated John's walk and mannerisms while he told the story, with some exaggeration naturally. We got quite a few good laughs out of it. They were also asked about how they ended up working in Torchwood and what they thought about the experience. Paul Kasey got the part due to all the work he had done in Doctor Who. Jack and Lachlan both went through auditions. Paul Kasey naturally has had a blast playing the many different creatures in both shows. Jack and Lachlan did enjoy the experience but did admit that coming to a set where everyone already knew each other and had been working together for long was maybe a bit intimidating.

Lachlan Nieboer, Jack Montgomery and Paul Kasey
<\/a>

They were also asked which scenes had been their favorites. Paul told us that he had liked playing the blowfish and driving the sports car. He did complain that the fin on the blowfish costume kept hitting the head rest while he was in the car. Lachlan had especially liked the scene where Jack and Gray meet for the first time and Gray stabs Jack with the big knife. In his opinion it was fun walking around with a huge knife, even if it was just a prop. He also told me that he had been a bit \"scared\" when he had been laying in the cryogenic tank with JB standing beside him. According to him JB had told him that he could do anything to him while he laid there. He told us that it had been pretty scary. There were also other questions but I just can't remember them now.

After their 45 minutes was up they left the stage for a while. The next part of the program was a panel where all the guests were present. The first one to enter the stage was Kai Owen who then called all the other guests to the stage one by one. After about half of the guests were on stage Kai claimed that the next guest to come up was James Marsters. No one really bought that. Kai's comment to that was; \"Nah, he's like 53 years old!\". Finally all the guests were on stage and the panel got on its way.

<\/a>

John entertained the audience by faking kisses with most of the people on stage. The only one he actually did kiss was Kai. That got a few whistles from the audience and comment from Gareth that \"We are so over.\" My camera so wasn't ready. JB and GDL did lean towards each other a few times but they didn't actually kiss. They were sitting beside each other and as soon as JB sat down he did caress Gareth's leg very suggestively.

<\/a>

John got into telling about his first impressions of Lachlan. When Lachlan told him that he had already told what John had said, JB passed that by saying that he's going to tell us what he did after they met for the first time. JB claimed that when he had met Lachlan he had immediately texted RTD that he definitely had to write an incest scene with Jack and Gray. RTD had almost immediately answered him that he was already writing it. All the guests were also asked about their first impression about RTD. Can't really remember their answers but they were pretty positive. Someone said that RTD never stops working. Every single free moment he has, he sits beside his window and writes stuff for Doctor Who and Torchwood.

A small dialogue between GDL, LN and JB, at least sort of, that happened during this panel.

GDL (in reference to Lachlan): You are so up his arse today
JB (can't say anything, just keeps laughing and hiding his face in his hands)
GDL: Oh well, gives me a bit of a break
JB (totally loses it and almost falls off his chair)

Once more there were quite a few double entendres. Or maybe some of the stuff wasn't meant to be thought in any naughty way but John kept making faces and saying stuff that could be understood in many different ways. I guess it was his purpose. Still weren't wise enough to take pen and paper with me so no notes about that Q&A either. All the questions were formed so that all the guests could answer them. There were some questions about their favorite times on the Torchwood set, their favorite movies and such.

The guests were asked what they wanted for Christmas. For some reason they sort of addressed their requests to John and requested Porches. When it was GDL's turn he went to sit on JB's lap to make his request. There was some groping going on and almost kisses. JB also asked GDL to move a bit to the left which he did with a smug expression and rubbed against JB.

Pic of that situation. Sorry this is a bit blurry. I hate my camera...
<\/a>

JB did admit that he did try to censor himself every once in a while due to the fact that were children present. He did slip out some things that probably weren't suitable for children's ears and he always apologized when he did that. After that he always told the children that they had to ask their parents what some of the words he used, meant. He's evil *g*

Naoko had a tendency to ramble in her answers and sometimes she got pretty far from the original question. JB and GDL kept pretending to fall asleep. They looked so cute leaning against each other. Naoko wasn't too pleased when she noticed what they were doing.

There was also an incident when GDL kissed Naoko. That didn't get even half the cheers as the kisses between the guys got. GDL just simply commented that \"It's just not gay enough for you, is it?\"

<\/a>

After the panel it was time for the auction. At first I thought I could leave the main hall since I strongly suspected I couldn't afford to buy anything. At least the few auctions I've taken part in previously the prices went way too high for me. Still I was a bit curious what kind of stuff they had to sell, so I stayed. Ended up buying autos from Eve Myles and Matt Rippy. Paid about \u00a320 for them. Was interested in some of the other stuff too but they quickly went out of my price range. I was especially interested in a enlarged photo of all the guests with all their autos. Can't remember how much that ended up costing but it was over \u00a3200. I could have maybe paid \u00a3150 for it but that was all. The most expensive thing to be sold was a dinner for two sitting opposite to GDL. Someone paid \u00a3540 for that. A pretty expensive dinner in my opinion. Another dinner for two was auctioned with a place opposite to Kai Owen. That went for \u00a3320. I was actually crazy enough to bet on that for a while with another Finnish girl. We stopped at \u00a3300. I'm pretty sure that if we had offered more the person who finally won it would have out betted us again. Some people just have too much money. I'm afraid what the price would have been if JB had been part of the dinner. It was told to us before the auction started that he wouldn't be able to take part in the dinner. All the other guests were going to be present.

After the auction was over I headed back to the hotel. The intention was to go and grab some dinner. Since we didn't have any better ideas we ended up at the hotel lobby to eat. The only problem was that we never got our food. We waited for a bit over a half an hour before asking after the food. It came out that our order never went through. Since I wanted to be back at the Park Inn in time we cancelled the whole order. The result of course was that I didn't eat that night either. I still had a few muesli bars so I hoped I would get by with them. Eating is overrated anyway\u2026

At Park Inn the party was already in full swing. The theme was a 1940's ball. There were two singers singing songs from that time. The main hall had been decorated with flags and posters. It looked pretty nice. Didn't have the energy to go dancing so I just took a seat and enjoyed the atmosphere. I also waited for the show we had been promised. JB, KO and GDL were supposed to do a small sketch for us that had been written by one of the writers of Doctor Who.

When the singers stopped people started to pack on the dance floor in front of the stage. At that point I realized my problem since I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to see much of the show from my current place since there were so many people standing in front of me. When JB, KO and GDL got on stage I got up to stand on the chair I had been sitting on that far. That was the only way I was going to see anything.

The whole thing started by John trying to get people to vote his friend at Strictly Come Dancing again. Unfortunately it was already too late. Gareth made some rude comments about the show. Next JB warned that the show had some \"slight\" adult material in it in case there were children present in the hall. Unfortunately I missed what Gareth said to that but JB's comment to whatever Gareth said was; \"I apologize for my lover.\" And the crowd went wild again.

Finally JB made a request that no one would record the show since they could get into really big trouble because of it. BBC is quite protective of its programs and if there was video evidence of the actors sort of mocking their own show that could result in the actors never being allowed to do cons again. After John had made his plea and people had dutifully lowered their cameras he and Gareth danced wildly to the tune of Torchwood. It looked quite interesting and I'm using the term dancing loosely\u2026

They had named the sketch \"The Nub\". The basis of the sketch was that Jack and Ianto had been chasing an alien and lost it at some point. A bit later Rhys joined them by some weird incident. Together they kept chasing the alien. There were quite a few cracks about the fact that we were in Northampton and a few about the organizers not having afford to get all of the Torchwood cast into the same con. The main emphasis was on double entendres. The lines went along: \"Ianto, I need you at the back entrance!\" Cue laughing\u2026

I can't remember when I've laughed as much as during the about fifteen minutes the show lasted. A few times I almost fell of the chair I was standing on due to laughing so much. Some of it of course went past me due to some language problems. JB, KO and GDL also kept repeating some stuff when people didn't laugh at the right points.

There were quite a few cracks (snort) about Ianto's role as the pizza\/coffee guy and how he forgot to bring Jack the coffee he had asked for.

The end result of the show was that the alien they had been chasing \"entered\" Rhys. It was made pretty clear in which way the alien did that. While he was writhing on the floor Ianto offered to get him a pizza or a subway or anything he wanted.

Rhys fought it for a while and then suddenly jumped up all chipper again and started to sing the song \"It's raining men\". Next he announced that he wanted to have sex with Ianto and Jack and told them that he wasn't an alien. Instead he was a Gaylien.

At first they did resist and thought it would be a good idea to try to figure out how to get the alien out of Rhys. However, pretty quickly they decided that they should definitely research the alien further, inside and out\u2026Then there was a lot of kissing. John kissing Gareth, John kissing Kai, Gareth kissing Kai. And people went wild. Then they left the stage but it didn't take long before they were back. They surprised the audience by turning their backs towards the audience and pulling their pants down. I so wish I had had my camera ready. I think I did see a few cameras there so it is possible someone managed to get a picture of it. *g* Then there was some more kissing and groping after which John crawled around on the floor while Kai kept slapping his ass.

In short the whole show was pure crack!

After the show was over the party continued with some more music. I wandered around the hall and the bar area and talked with people. At some point I saw Kai at the bar and complimented their show to him. He thanked and said that their goal had been to entertain and it seemed they had succeeded in it. I assured him that they really had. A bit later I heard from someone that Gareth had been mooning people at other occasions as well. Sorry, that I missed that *g*

I mainly just sat around and watched the other people dancing. Started to feel really tired and actually ended up falling asleep. At that point I decided it was probably best to return to our own hotel and go to bed. I'm guessing the lack of sleep was getting to me. I hadn't been sleeping that well for the few previous nights. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow at the hotel. It was about 1 am at that point.


<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/350246.html?view=comments#comments","category":"the hub"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/349990.html","pubDate":"Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:23:07 GMT","title":"The Hub - Part 1","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/349990.html","description":"Here is the first part of my con report. Nothing that interesting in this part since it mainly concentrates on me getting from home to Northampton. Still there is some stuff about the guests at the end. *g* Just a warning that tThere are also a few pictures (three) embedded into the story in case you are on dial-up. They are pretty small since I linked them from the LJ scrap book.


Friday 17.10.2008



First let's get the boring stuff out of the way. Woke up for some weird reason already at 4am. Couldn't really sleep after that. I started thinking about the trip and worrying if I had all the things I needed with me. I even had to get up to check that I really had my passport one more time. Finally at 5:30am, which was still way too early for me, my alarm went off and I knew I had to get up. Surprisingly it was easier to get up than I thought. I guess it was due to the fact that I knew that I didn't need to go to work today but there were a lot more fun things ahead of me.

Ate some breakfast after which my father gave me a lift to the airport. That was very kind of him. He's already retired so he really didn't have to get up but he had told me the previous evening that he was going to take me to the airport so that I didn't have to take a taxi. Saved me about 20 euros with that.

At the airport I went straight to the baggage drop since I had checked myself in already the previous day. Left my luggage there and continued to the security check. Everything went smoothly there as well and soon I was already at the currency exchange. Got my money and then went to do some shopping. Needed some exfoliating cream. Unfortunately there were just really expensive choices at the shop and I ended up buying one of them. It was pretty much thanks to the sales lady since she talked me around. Sure it was cheaper than if I had bought it from a store in Helsinki but still made a small hole to my budget.

When I got out of the store I noticed that I still had almost an hour before my plane was supposed to leave. Ended up walking around the airport and pretending to look at the stuff that was being sold there. In reality had no interest in buying anything else.

When I got tired of the shops I went through the passport control and made my way to my gate. To my pleasant surprise I didn't have to sit there too long before they started to let us in. I had managed to reserve myself the seat beside the emergency exit which meant more legroom. That was nice. It took a while before anyone came to sit beside me. At first look the two women who sat there seemed nice but as it has been seen first impressions can be deceiving. I think they had already had a few drinks before getting on the plane which in my opinion was pretty well since it wasn't even 8am at that point. Luckily I was able to listen to my iPod as soon as we were in air.

The breakfast at the plane wasn't anything special. A dry bun with some cheese and orange juice. I was pretty glad I had eaten something before leaving my parents' house. Otherwise I would have been probably starving. Just had tea and water with it but unfortunately the women beside me decided to have some wine. Trust me that their behavior didn't get any better. The more I listened them the more I put volume to my iPod and started hoping I would have taken some wine too. Maybe then I would have been able to listen to them better *g*

The flight went pretty smoothly except for some turbulence at one point. We actually landed at Heathrow about 20 minutes before time. The airport wasn't entirely ready for us so we had to wait in the plane for some time before they got the busses there. Felt embarrassed when the women who had been sitting beside me started complaining about it loudly. Some other people asked them to be quiet and they just got more riled up about that. I didn't mind the delay since I knew that my coach to Northampton was leaving after 11am and at that point it was just 9am in London. I was in no hurry. Finally we got out of the plane. With a leisure pace I made my way towards the baggage reclaim. I was sort of hoping that my luggage wouldn't come among the first ones since I wanted to waste as much time as possible. Of course with my luck I spotted my luggage almost immediately when I got to the baggage reclaim area. I collected it and continued my way towards the central bus station where my coach was supposed to leave.

A pretty boring area, if you ask me. There's one caf\u00e9 that just has a few tables. When I got there I had about 1\u00bd hours before my coach was supposed to leave. Spent my time writing this travel report on my laptop and reading the fics I had taken with me. Also too advantage of the coffee shop since I began to feel a bit hungry after the lousy breakfast in the plane.

While I waited I took part in a questionnaire they were doing about the bus station. There were quite a few questions about the are in general and all the facilities in it. Passed my time nicely.

Finally they announced that my bus was on the station and I could continue my trip. The bus was maybe half full. Luckily I got to sit by myself and no one came to sit beside me. The bus trip was pretty boring too. I did try to read a bit and watch the scenery we passed but that didn't amuse me too long. Tried sleeping as well but that didn't work out either. Since I've slept about five hours the previous night you would have thought I could have slept at least a little bit.

Got to Northampton almost on schedule. It took me a while to find the right way towards my hotel but luckily I met another person going to the same direction, or actually to the Park Inn, and we tried to find the hotels together. After a few stops to ask directions we found the Park Inn and noticed that the Ibis, where I was staying in, was just on the other side of the road. A very nice thing since it wouldn't have been nice walking back from the Park Inn after the parties if it had been a long way.

At the hotel I got scared for a while since they couldn't find my reservation first. Then it was revealed that they had spelled my name a bit wrong. Got my room keys and made my way to my room. I also got a letter from the reception from the Park Inn where they gave me a few drink vouchers to be used in their bars due to the fact that I had been transferred.

The room was alright. The view from the window is to some other buildings roof so that leaves something to desire but I guess I didn't come here to watch out from the window. The room was double instead of a twin but I guess that couldn't be helped either.

A funny fact, at least to me. I almost cracked up when I used the hotel elevator for the first time to go to the lobby. I guess it's just the fact that I'm in a Torchwood convention but when the voice in the elevator said; \"Going down.\" I wanted to add \"Yes, please\" to it. *g* I guess it's the norm here that there's a voice in the elevator talking to you. We don't have that in Finland. I guess I can check the amount of my tiredness by the fact that if I do crack up in the elevator. If I do that I'm probably way too tired and it's time to go to bed. *g*

After three I went to get my registration pack. Had to make two trips since I forgot my registration letter on the first time. Oh well, at least I learn to know the way from the Ibis to the Park Inn really well. There's this park I need to go through to get straight there. Don't know how safe that park will be in the evening but at least at daytime I can go through there. It's a bit shorter than walking the streets. Did receive my pack, convention T-shirt and a coffee mug. My pack was still missing the extra photo shoots I had purchased. They told me that I would be getting them later.

Returned back to the hotel to wait for <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> to show up. Since there was no sign of her I returned to the Park Inn to meet some people from LJ. It was nice to put faces on the people I've talked with online. Even met another Finnish girl there.

Spent a while talking with the LJ people but then the lure of dealers' room got to me and I went to spend some money there. Came out of there with four pictures, one mug and one magazine. Probably would have spent more but just then <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> called me and told that she was near the hotel. Had to return there to meet her.

We hung at the hotel for a while and then headed back to the Park Inn where the opening ceremony was starting. <\/a>justdb<\/b><\/a><\/span> didn't have her ticket yet so she had to line up for that. I headed for the ceremony. Got there a bit too late since they had already let people in. However, I managed to get a pretty good seat due to the fact that I had a gold ticket and was allowed to walk straight to the seats near the front. My seat was quite at the side but still better than somewhere in the back.

When the opening ceremony finally started only three of the guests had arrived. Those were John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori. People went pretty much crazy when they heard the tune for Torchwood from the speakers. It was Naoko's first convention and she admitted that she was a bit nervous. Gareth and John were already experienced con-goers.

A few pics from the opening ceremony

Gareth

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John

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Naoko, John and Gareth

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The opening ceremony lasted only for a while. After that it was turn for the drinks reception for the Gold ticket holders, which I was one of. Mainly hung around the people I already recognized from the LJ meet or from other occasions. The first actor we met was Naoko. She was really nice. She felt a bit overwhelmed by the attention she was getting. She was surprised by the fact there were people in Finland watching Torchwood.

During the reception I managed to meet John, Gareth and Kai as well. I talked with Kai the most. John had some dirty jokes he didn't dare to tell while there were children present. I told him greetings from Finland and he asked me if I had come there just for the convention. When I replied in the affirmative he was very surprised. He also told me that I was the first Finnish person he had ever met. The time with them went way too quickly. After all the guests left the area I half ran back to the hotel to change my clothes again. I had a western dress for the evening.

When the clothes had been changed we went back to the Park Inn and joined the party which was already in full swing. Was feeling a bit tired already but decided to hang around for a while at least. I did see Gareth and Kai hanging around in the area as well. Did talk a bit with Kai but tried to go along with the request we had been given about not hassling the guests too much. I just mainly concentrated on listening. Somehow time again got away from me and before I even realized it was already one am. At that point I had been awake almost 22 hours. Made way back to our own hotel and quickly into bed. I already knew that I wouldn't get enough sleep.




<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/349990.html?view=comments#comments","category":"the hub"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/348223.html","pubDate":"Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:17:16 GMT","title":"Worried","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/348223.html","description":"A bit worried now. Read from the discussion board of The Hub convention that some people have been contacted by the hotel to inform them that they no longer have rooms in the hotel due to some refurbishments. Those people are being transferred to the other convention hotel which is a few blocks from the actual hotel where all the things are going to happen. When one of the persons on the discussion board had called the hotel they had told her that at least all the people who booked the hotel in May will be transferred. I just checked that I booked my hotel on 30th of April. It really sucks if I get transferred. Sure it isn't that long way from the other hotel but still it won't be nice running between the hotels several times a day. Or returning to the hotel from one of the night parties. One of the reasons I tried to book the hotel well in advance was to make sure that I'll get a room from the convention hotel.

I really do hope I won't be one of those who will be transferred. Actually a bit worried if I even have a room in the hotel since I asked them to send me a confirmation e-mail which I never received. I did call them a few weeks after I made the initial booking and at that point they did tell me that everything was in order with my booking.

Keeping fingers crossed!","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/348223.html?view=comments#comments","category":"the hub"},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/347297.html","pubDate":"Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:28:18 GMT","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/347297.html","description":"Today really hasn't been my day. First I totally overslept. I guess there had been a power outage in my area during the night that caused the fact that my alarm didn't wake me up. When I woke up I was just surprised that it was already so light out. When I checked my alarm it showed that it was 1:47 am which of course couldn't be true. My first clue to the power outage was the fact that the time was blinking. I quickly got out of bed and tried to find the correct time from somewhere. It came out that it was already 8:40am. I should have been in the office already by eight.

I tried to get dressed quickly and headed out. When I was almost at the train station I noticed that I had left my mobile at home. I had to return to get it since it's my only work phone. When I was again on my way towards the train station I called my colleague that I was going to be late from a meeting that was supposed to start at 9am. I was maybe 200 meters from the train station when I saw the train arriving. There was no way I could have ran to it so I told my colleague that I would come with the next train. Usually the trains go about every 15 minutes. However, today there was still something wrong with the system and I ended up waiting for the train for almost half an hour. When I finally got to the office it was already 9:50am. Practically I was about two hours late.

The meeting ran past me. Then I just had time for a quick lunch before my next meeting started. Luckily that didn't take long and I was finally able to start actually doing my work. However, Friday afternoons have never been the most productive time for me so I didn't get that much done.

I had to leave the office a bit after three since I had promised that I would pick up my niece once more. All in all, I was in the office about five and a half hours. There are some hours to make up next week. And I guess I need to catch up on my work too.

Now I'm sitting here and surfing. My niece is already sleeping and I'm waiting for her mother to come home. It can happen that she won't come home any time soon since she just found out this morning that she got fired. No reason was given. She was just told that her services weren't needed anymore. She was pretty upset by it. She had only been in that place for about two months. She went for some drinks with her old colleagues, to say goodbye to them. She wasn't even allowed to do that today when she was escorted out of that place. It sounds really weird to me. When I asked if she knew what was behind the firing, she said she had no idea. They hadn't told her any reason. I feel really sorry for her since she seemed to like that job. And now she's again unemployed.","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/347297.html?view=comments#comments","category":["work","niece"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/344697.html","pubDate":"Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:34:36 GMT","author":"piksa","link":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/344697.html","description":"How come it seems I never get anything done. Or at least that's the feeling I have.

Did distance work today, as I usually do on Thursdays. It's a habit among my colleagues that we all do distance work on Thursdays. In my opinion I really tried to work hard during the day but it still seems I got nothing done. Even after I turned off the connection to the office work there were still quite a few e-mails waiting for my attention.

Did manage to finalize the changes to my thesis. I'm going to print it tomorrow, read it through during the wekeend and then send it to my sister on Monday. Hopefully she'll have at least some good things to say about it this time around.

There's still one project I really need to get done for school. I just counted that I need to return it by the end of October to make sure that it gets graded in time for my graduation. Of course I will try to get it returned as soon as possible but with the serious lack of inspiration I have going on, it might not happen too soon. Still I don't want my graduation to be pushed forward just because I can't get one stupid project done so I'm really going to work on it during the weekend.

I guess this is enough of me moaning about school. Dexter is starting soon. I'm going to watch that and then head for bed.","comments":"https:\/\/piksa.livejournal.com\/344697.html?view=comments#comments","category":["thesis","school"]}]}}