Matt's Pasadena Convention Report
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Matt and I'm with the Xenaversity of Minnesota. www.xenaversity.com Here's my convention report (originally posted on the Xenaversity onelist):
Wow! What a weekend. Where do I start? Note*I tried to steer clear of inside jokes*you know the ones*but I'm making the disclaimer now that inevitably a few found there way into this report. How about at the beginning? <grin>
Friday, January 21, 2000 After about six hours of sleep in two days, I got up bright and early at 4:30 in the morning and packed and got ready to go, remembering to get all the compilation tapes for the guests and music videos and whatnot. I got to the airport pretty early and met Angie, her mom Karen, Patti, Amada, and Lizzy at the HHH terminal in Minneapolis. We were all taking the same flight. We hung out, started our "XENA CON" documentary (Amada brought a video camera), and Patti bought two Star Trek books. I was going to Pasadena because I created a bunch of Xena music videos that Creation used throughout the past year and a half and Gary rewarded me with four tickets to Pasadena.
The flight out was uneventful, but the pilot did mention that there was a 71 degree temperature difference between LAX and MSP (something Gary Berman mentioned Friday at the Con to everyone). WOW! Flying over LA, looking at all the palm trees, swimming pools, traffic, and smog*we finally disembarked and were taken aback by the gorgeous LA winter weather. We also got to walk right by Air Force One, as the President had given a speech at Caltech that morning at 10:30 AM.
We were supposed to meet a local XOMbie from Texas, Deborah, but our flight was delayed so we opted for a Taxi Shuttle to go to the Doubletree Inn, which was about 5 blocks from the Convention Center (I kept getting lost whenever I'd walk the 5 blocks by myself all weekend.) We stopped at the hotel room, met up with Amiee and Brian, and dropped our belongings off. We then waited for James to get into costume and if you thought the comments he got in the Chicago Hyatt were funny, too bad you weren't on the street to see what happened in Pasadena. Heads turned and accidents were nearly caused.
When we got to the convention center (Amiee, Amada, and Brian stayed behind to get into costume), L izzy got her tickets upgraded from row E to C because she had preregistered the previous year. Jam es, Todd, and myself waited for about a half hour before we finally got in, there was a problem wit h securing tickets promised from Gary, but we eventually got seats in row I, 14-18, which wasn't to o bad, and we could see good. The convention dealers' room was a lot smaller than I expected, but there was a lot of new merchandise (and I'm not just talking what was on the tables * also a certai n someone selling the merchandise). There were a lot of sword dealers and Titus software had a lot of demos set up for the weekend but most of the XOMbies were already familiar with the new N64 gam e (remember the new year party?)
I ended up waiting in line to get my $60.00's worth of photos for about an hour and a half, so I mi ssed the Creation video to Xena "Simply the Best" (big deal), a new documentary (Favorite moments w ith Gabby). I did get two free photos, however. Gary finally came through with Cabaret tickets (F riday night we were all spread out but Saturday night I got 5 seats in row C, center stage*actually 4 seats, Amada snuck in, but that's another story).
The photos were the only merchandise I bought all weekend long. I got a Young Hercules 11X14 (alth ough I later found out Creation was selling Young Herc merchandise illegally because they no longer had the rights to sell Young Herc stuff), a great shot of Hudson from Ides, a new beautiful shot o f Danielle from Sky High, an Eli pic, an Ares pic (yummy), a group shot from Cleo 2525 (at first I thought I should get them to all sign separate shots but I was cheap and I'm glad because the new s how rocks!!!), a Kevin Sorbo shot (he did not sign but I still had hopes, so now I have a Herc pic that I don't really want), a pic of Strife and Discord, a pic of Willa O'Neal, a pic of Jeremy (the y continually promoted him as Pompey, but they only had two shots of Jeremy and both were Palamon*T odd got both shots for some reason*), a pic of Iolaus (no pics of Twanky! What's up with that?), a pic of Allison Wahl (it's not a very good shot of Minya, they had some better head shots on Saturd ay but they were all sold out by So I finally find my seat after walking around for a little while looking at all the great costumes . I was especially impressed with Deb from New Orleans all weekend. She was great in every sense of the word. I also met up with Deborah from Texas (our friend that we were supposed to car pool w ith but couldn't find in LAX). She was really nice. Pretty everyone I met that weekend was great and I saw some familiar faces like Kris Flores and Cruise, along with Terri, Jim, and Royla (they w ere next door to the Xenaversity rooms in the Doubletree)
Adam Malin emceed the whole weekend, except for the first two auctions, which Gary did. I hate to say it, but I missed Gary emceeing. I might have actually had a chance to sit backstage for the co n but I decided to put my feet up and enjoy the big con. I got verbal confirmation that the Xenave rsity banner would be signed by almost all the guests, so that was good enough for me. Gary also s aid that I couldn't give guests compilation tapes of music videos because he was worried that they would forget the videos (an instance like that occurred in Chicago with Danielle), and fans would s teal them and make bootlegs, so I acquiesced and didn't give out any compilations. (Although I man aged to sneak one to Robert Field, Xena editor on Sunday).
So anyway, after handing out a lot of XOM party flyers and promotional flyers (we had a great coat of arms banner designed by Amada*which we left in some Mexican restaurant BTW). Eventually I took my seat right before Tim Omundson came out. They played my Missionary Man video with new scenes fr om Chakram and Seeds of Faith, but screwed up the beginning by loosing the first 15 seconds of audi o (not the last video of my to get screwed up by Creation that weekend.)
Tim came out and was great. He was very funny in a Jim Carrey trying too hard kind of way and look ed a lot better in person*pretty much clean shaven. I don't have too much to say about his spiel e xcept there were some funny anecdotes that I can't remember now but I'm sure they are elsewhere on the net.
I skipped the following to hang out in the dealers room and gaze at the "merchandise": Jack of All Trades premiere (which I ended up watching Sunday morning along with Cleo with Amada (as Cleo hee hee) in Jim and Terry's room. Jack of All Trades is a lot of fun if you are a Bruce Campbell fan, which I'm not, but it does seem more interesting than some episodes of Hercules. Then came Creatio ns blah salute to Joxer (my and Dayna's video is much better yet they don't play it because of poli tics with Adam and his friend from Jersey that does some of the videos. Creation's song is that on e from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Everything I Do, I Do it for You, and my song is "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" which includes some great lines like, "My name is Ted"). The first of three "No Minimum Bid Auctions" came next, hosted by Gary "Retail" Berman (he said on stage in Chicago that "Retail" was his favorite word.) The only auction I watched was the one on Sunday because I was bored and w anted to see a bunch of suckers w Then I found my seat and then came a video welcome from Lucy and Renee, which was a special treat. They gave some spoilers away and it was pretty fun. It was replayed on Saturday and got a great r eaction then too. The trivia contest came next. I got up to ask when the second time ROC was put on a cross. I stumped the panel but some girl in the audience got it right (Armageddon Now II). T he trivia contest was pretty lame compared to some of the ones I've seen at past cons.
They played my Ephiny video next (The Look), and Danielle came out. She was good, had a pair of ki ck ass red boots that didn't match the rest of her outfit, and was hyper as usual. I heard that at Santa Monica, at her first con, she had to be dragged out on stage by Karl Urban and Kevin Smith. She's certainly grown into the role. Cruise got a kiss on the lips from Danielle (I saw this up c lose and personal, being behind her in line to ask a question). I don't even remember what I asked her, something about a future project with Karl Urban or something. We then got autographs from D anielle and Tim (Tim personalized my autograph because of my work on the music video, which he like d and Danielle recognized me but thought I'd seen her last in San Fran*I guess all the Cons kind of run together for the guests that do a lot of them (I've coined a term for that that's kind of unfl attering but is applicable to those who do all the cons (like Claire and Danielle, although Claire appears to be taking a much neede Anyway, then we went and got a bite to eat across the street at Plaza Pasadena Mall. I had some ol d Sbaro spaghetti and we chatted with some local LA Xenites like this woman that looks like Molly S hannon from SNL but works for Universal impersonating Xena. Angie stopped at Arby's earlier in the day and ran into Tim Omundson doing an interview and she snagged a pic. We stopped at the hotel a nd people got out of costumes.
We then went to the Cabaret. After some pre show waiting in line, Amada and I managed to get as cl ose as Row B and Amada got up, danced in front of the stage, and got to sing a little with Danielle . I forget the song, maybe Bad to the Bone. There were a lot of cover songs. Adam from Creation was on keyboards and a bunch of his buddy's compromised the Bard's Band. Joel Tobeck came out firs t and he is HOT! And a great guitar player to boot! Kevin Smith was drop dead amazing and had quit e the voice (Joel had a lot of tongue action going on). Danielle came out and did some numbers, sc reaming a bit. There was a lot alcohol consumed in various quantities on stage also. Some doo-wop singers named Solstice did back up and they were pretty dorky looking. I don't even think their m ikes were plugged in for most of the performance. Tim Omundson came out in shades and did harmonic a and some vocals. Kevin brought the house down with two numbers from Rocky Horror*Sweet Transvest ite and Timewarp. The audience w Then we were all on a euphoric high and we got back to the hotel. Deb from New Orleans and the guy who dresses up like Cupid, besides James, and some others came into Jim and Terry's room and we wa tched music videos for an hour or so. We got tired pretty fast and went back to our room. I final ly got to sleep Friday around three in the morning with a certain XOMbie snoring up a storm. I had to get up early for Saturday, which turned out to provide the most highlights of the con*.
Saturday, January 22, 2000
Saturday morning found me getting up bright and early to get ready for the Charity Breakfast. Sinc e it was for charity, Creation couldn't give me free tickets and Amiee, myself, James, and Todd man aged to be the last people to order tickets for the breakfast.
Lizzy decided (luckily for all of us) to do a Cherry Hill repeat, getting to the Ballroom a couple of hours early and securing our first place in line. This is an amazing feat, considering she was u p all night running through the hotel with James and Amada evading security while doing a Charlie's Angels reenactment.
James, Royla, and Jim assisted outside checking people in, and Amiee and I worked inside directing traffic; Terry directed traffic outside the doors. Due to our help that day and James, Lizzy, Roy la, Terry, and Jim helping with T-shirts throughout the con, Anita set aside the table nearest the guests for XOM. The guests were finally let in*Kevin Smith (who went to bed at 6:30 AM and woke up at 7:30 AM*just guess at the condition he was in), Joel Tobeck, Alison Wahl, and Willa O'Neal (Ali son and Willa spent Saturday looking for vintage shops*by the look of Alison's dress on Sunday, she found some memorable stuff.) I guess Danielle was supposed to be at the con but she didn't make i t. I heard she had a bad case of the bottle flu.
There was a lot of good food to eat: cheese omelets, sausage, bacon, eggs, hash browns, juice, coff ee, fresh fruit, hot blueberry crepes, Danishes, doughnuts, and much more*.although Anita was lamen ting the absence of bagels, being from New York. Then I learned something awesome that was the hig hlight for many at the con*Xenaversity got to escort the guests around breakfast!!!!! Plus the ent ire room sang happy birthday to James!!!! Amiee and I, after getting our 35 dollars worth of food, got to escort Willa around. Willa is awesome. She is so spunky, nothing like Lila her character. She reminded me of a cross between Laura Ingalls Wilder and Punky Brewster. She was great! Esco rting her around was a lot of fun (James got to escort Kevin Smith, Todd got to escort Ali, and my mind is blanking on who escorted Joel*Bev I think). Willa has a new musical she is very proud of, called Meatworks, and she just won a best supporting New Zealand actress award for her work on Herc ules as Althea. Willa was taking I do have to mention that a lot of the fans at breakfast were rude when they took pictures of the g uests eating, something that wasn't allowed in Cherry Hill. Also, when reminded no autographs, the y pestered the guests anyway and the guests ended up signing and posing a lot longer than they had originally intended to. At the end of the breakfast, we got group pics with all the guests (Alison Wahl is a blond BTW).
After the euphoric high of escorting the guests, we went out and hung outside, goofing off, doing s ome filming, etc. Then I had the bright idea of going back upstairs with the video camera and tryi ng to get the guests on film for a Xenaversity welcome! I managed to snag Willa away from security for a beautiful 30-second spot she did. She waved at the camera and said, "Hello XOMbies of the X enaversity of Minnesota! Willa O'Neal here! We're having a blast in Pasadena and I just wanted to say hi to all of you back in Minnesota who couldn't be here today!" (more on this interview later*.)
Then we killed more time, some going back to the hotel, some hanging out in the bushes with a video camera stalking guests (who you ask? Let's just say it was the only male Charlie's Angel).
The Con started back up again at 1:00 with a repeat of the hilarious video welcome from Lucy and Re nee on the set of New Zealand. This welcome was made exclusively for the con in Pasadena. They th en showed the Xena blooper reels again (batch #3). Then they brought Joel Tobeck out. He was a gr eat guest, kind of reserved. Did you know that his mother played Hercules' mom? He was a great gu est but I missed some of his stuff and some of Meighan Desmond's appearance because RYAN GOSLING, Y oung Hercules himself, was supposed to be signing autographs in the annex. I got in line but event ually left my place because I didn't want to miss all of Joel, Meighan, or Jeremy. Ryan was late f or his signing and when he did show up, he brought a few of his friends that were actors but I didn 't know what shows or films his friends had been in.
But I digress. Back to the con. Meighan was a surprise. She was kind of tiny but was very beauti ful, kind of in a young Lucy way, and wowed us with her different American accents. She was very n ice and I'm sure she'll be back for future cons.
Then came the video salute to Jeremy Callaghan that Todd and I worked on. He came onto the stage i n style and told the crowd he was from Australia. He was amazing in person and put a lot of though t into his comments and was very intelligent and he licked his lips a lot. He also did a wicked El vis impersonation. Todd and I went up to the mike and I introduced Todd to Jeremy and Jeremy looke d at Todd in his Caesar costume slowly and proceeded to salute him, Pompey style. That was one of the highlights of the con for me, and for Todd I'm sure. He even called Todd his liege or lord or something.
I saw that the line for Ryan was moving so I got up and went to the annex. I decided to miss the C leo 2525 debut because I wanted to watch it without being in a room full of people watching it on a washed out screen (it was hard to see the images because of the light spilling over from the deale rs room. I got to see the Cleo premiere Sunday morning anyway. I waited in line for about a half- hour and finally got up there. I got my picture taken with Ryan, and got a personalized autograph from him. It was the highlight of my weekend.
I got back to the dealers' room to see the three gals of Cleo 2525 on stage together. They came on stage right after the show debuted. Jennifer Sky lives up to her reputation, let's put it that wa y, and the blond hair suits her. She kept dropping major subtext hints whenever anyone asked a que stion. Victoria was built! She also had a degree in chemical engineering or something. Gina tore up the stage, being an experienced con goer. She was great and the interaction between the three was to die for. I knew then and there if the writers of Cleo capture the group dynamic that those three have, Cleo will be a great hit.
As soon as the Cleo girls left the stage, I went and explored the dealers' room some more and got s omething to eat. I missed the following: an intermission, a reshowing of the Titus N64 promo reel , the "Wind Beneath My Wings" music video, which is Creation's most overplayed video and I really d on't care for it (and those comments are being very nice considering...) Then came the second of t hree auctions, emceed by Gary, which I didn't watch either.
I got back to my seat in time for the Bad to the Bone video and then Kevin came out in a Goldberg T shirt. He was great. Kind of, "Here I Am...I don't have to work too hard at this but I look so d amn good that who cares..." was kind of the attitude during the Q and A. I went up and asked him a bout whether or not the scene in Forget Me Not, where Ares helped Gabrielle get to Chin early, was written at the time of the Debt, but he didn't know. He said a lot of cool things about all kinds of subjects. It was kind of weird hearing him speak in a Kiwi accent. Another highlight was Ryan Gosling sneaking in line in front of me and asking Kevin the following
<in a high pitched voice> "Umm*Kevin*Did Ares have a crush on Young Hercules?"
Kevin responded, "A crush? Of course not. Ares had the young lad. He had him rough and hard!" Ryan replied, "Can I touch your muscles?"
Kevin laughed and Ryan went back backstage. Kevin said that he had a lot of fun working on Young H ercules with Ryan but everyday Ryan would try to touch his muscles, Kevin said. "Just to touch!" R yan would always say. I thought that was...interesting to say the least.
As soon as he left the stage, autographs started. They didn't get through everyone, stopping at ro w N, I think, and Kevin and Gina stopped signing around row J I think. Luckily I was in row I and I got everyone to sign (Kevin, Jeremy, Victoria, Jennifer, Gina, Meighan, and Joel.) There was a s pecial surprise for the crack addict of XOM. We were there a long time waiting in line, and to kee p the crowd entertained, "Lyre Lyre Hearts on Fire," the new Xena musical was shown.
WOW!!! This musical brought the house down. If you think watching an episode with 20 XOMbies is i nteresting, then try it with 4000 Xena fans! First off, I wasn't expecting a complete musical. I was thinking it would have a few dance numbers or something, kind of like And Fancy Free, My Fair C upcake, A Tale of Two Muses, or Just Passing Through. As soon as the first number, the Pat Benetar inspired "War? What is it Good For?" started, I couldn't stop watching. All the way to the discl aimer and pregnant Lucy! What an experience. I even started getting tears in my eyes and getting verklempt when Lucy belted out the opening notes of "Sisters (Are Doing it for Themselves)." I rea d a lot of criticism and flak about this episode online on various mailing lists since I got back a nd all I have to say is WHATEVER!!! I have not met one person who saw the episode in that group dy namic setting who thought it was bad. I have never watched an episode of Xena more than once for a t least a month after they air an After getting the autographs, we proceeded to a local Mexican restaurant that wasn't carding, lucki ly for me, and had a big Mexican dinner with Xenites and XOMbies from all over. Then we went back to the hotel to change and freshen up for the Cabaret, drinking a little more of course.
We got to the cabaret and Amada realized she didn't have her ticket. Needless to say, she looked s tunning that night and walked in like she owned the place and no one stopped her at all. She even sat in row D. The Cabaret was great, very nightclub. Adam and company did some electronic version s of Herc and Xena theme songs which were good and Sharon Delenay and Creation staff started it off with a musical number about organizing the cabaret and you could tell they put a lot of time and r ehearsal into it. The cabaret Saturday night was much less rock and roll like than the previous ni ght. Then Claire came out, looking like she always does, unbelievable, and there was a running "Cl aire and her Cymbals" gag throughout the night. She introduced most of the acts and was hitting on Jeremy backstage and taking Willa under her wing, (I'm convinced she was passing on the ConHoar To rch to Willa.)
Ebonie Smith came out in a breathtaking green gown. She did three songs, one of which was Fever, c omplete with extra verses about Xena and Gabrielle. She was beautiful. James asked her the next d ay about the verses and she sang them!!! Willa came out and did "Oh Sweet Child of Mine" which was amazing and she also did "There is always something there to remind me." Kevin came out and did " Melt into Me," complete with obligatory Cymbal clash at the end by Claire. Gina did "I Will Surviv e" and she received a stand ovation from a number of the men in the audience. Jeremy did some Elvi s numbers and Gina and Kevin did a stunning duet. Michael Hurst came out with short hair and did K ing Herod's number from Jesus Christ Superstar! and a few other numbers. Then they did a grand fin ale number. It was a lot shorter than Friday night but more polished. It was a great success. I forgot to mention that both nights, Friday and Saturday, my music videos were played in the backgro und and complemented the songs ni After the cabaret, we wandered back to the hotel looking for a way to release all our pent up excit ement. We succeeded by running down the streets and taking group pic in front of water fountains l it up in courtyards at night. Then it was off to bed for another day of con!!!!
I hope everyone is enjoying these reports...here is part three of four. It was discussed in Pasadena to send out cryptic messages like the ones we sent out after Cherry Hill and Chicago but then I said screw it, I have to write all this down because every day that goes by that I don't, I end up forgetting stuff. So here ya go!!! <grin>
Sunday, January 23, 2000
Sunday morning started off bright and early with a music video viewing party in Terry and Royla's r oom. This lasted about two hours and about eight non-XOMbies were there. A great time was had by all. Then everyone left and I watched Jack of all Trades and Cleo 2525 with Amada while she was wo rking on her costume, adding beads to her wig. I then left, bound for the mall to get some food. I got to the convention around 1:00 and saw Deb from New Orleans in an awesome costume...Lucy Lawle ss from the Australian cover of Rolling Stone (The black winged angel). It was great. James did C upid and Patti did Season five Gabrielle, complete with Sais. Myron was in costume as Ares the God of Love, Todd was Caesar, and Amada was Cleo.
Throughout the day, everything was about an hour behind schedule. This meant less time with Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst at the end of the day. The day started off with Hercules Bloopers (batch # 2), then a cool presentation by KNB effects. They have worked on dozens of films, ranging from The Haunting to Dances with Wolves to The X-Files. They also do creature work on Xena like Hannuman, Kali, Fallen Angel costumes, the Destroyer, and others. The presentation was great and featured a lot of footage from behind the scenes of Fallen Angel.
Robert Field came on next with a funny clip he shot of Steven Sears trying to steal his wallet. Ro bert does most of the editing work on Xena. He showed three clips from "Them Bones" where he edite d the skeleton scene. He also showed two lost clips, both with Tim Omundson. One was a sword-eati ng scene from Devi and one was from the Way where Eli's arm turns into a snake. These scenes were dropped because the episode went too long. I managed to give him my music video compilation tape a s he was leaving the stage.
The video salute to Xena's mentors was next. It was well received and then Ebonie came out on stag e and said, "Thanks. That was a beautiful montage and it brought back a lot of memories." She was a great guest and was genuinely impressed with the convention circuit. She was very friendly to a ll the fans asking her questions as well. James got up and asked her to sing the part of Fever wit h Xena and Gabrielle:
"Xena had a friend named Gabrielle, They would travel everywhere, Kicking butt and saving lives now, Don't they make a lovely pair? Giving you fever..."
Willa O'Neal was next and she displayed the great spunk she demonstrated at the Cabaret last night. I went up to ask a question, she recognized me, and said, "You looked after me yesterday, didn't you?" I asked her what it was like to work with the Widow Twanky and she gave some interesting ane cdotes.
I then left and got my picture taken with Ebonie. She was posing in the dealers' room. I got to t alk with her mom for a while and she thanked me for the video montage. Ebonie was great, posing fo r pictures with everyone who was around.
I then watched the no minimum bid auction and it went really slow, because Adam hosted it. A row o f women behind me chanted the mantra; "We want Gary! We want Gary!" I thought I was in the twilig ht zone or something. Every time Gary would go on stage to tell Adam to hurry up, they would screa m and shout. Adam kept going off about the "shatter proof expensive frames" and it was weird. Xen a's boot dagger from the show went for 3,000 dollars.
I then heard Willa was signing in the annex, impromptu. I went in line because I really wanted her autograph and wasn't sure if she was signing tonight as well (it turned out she was). I stopped b ack into the main auditorium to see the Minya music video (Creation screwed this one up too by havi ng no video for the first 30 seconds). Alison came out in a funky tie dye dress. Unfortunately, I was in line for Willa the whole time so I missed Minya.
I was about 10 people away from Willa and Creation security was trying to drag her on stage to judg e the costume contest. She looked up, saw me in line, pointed, and said, "Him He's the last I'm si gning for." I was elated. When I got up there, she said, "Lucky Last! Hi Matt!" She signed my a utograph, "Cheers Matt! ' Oh Sweet Child of Mine' Love Willa" I was so happy.
Then the costume contest. Wow! I heard later on that Rob Tapert was seen backstage. There were a bout forty contestants and Ebonie, Alison, and Willa were the judges. I thought for sure Deb would win it (she was Black Angel), because she won the last 2 years in a row. By audience applause, sh e would have won I think. There were many great costumes. Salmoneus was very much a look alike, t here were two cupids and a Caesar (Todd wasn't up there). There was even a costume from Cleo 2525.
Well, when I found out who placed in the contest, I screamed, jumped to my feet and applauded for a bout 5 minutes. Third place was PATTI!!!!!!!!!!!! She got third with her season five Gabrielle. Second was an Australian as Xena, one of Patti's friends. And first place was, drum roll please, A AAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAADDDDDDAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's Amada for those of you who couldn't read that! Amada got first for Cleo and got tons of prizes including a Xena denim jacket and a Jo xer Plaque.
Wow! That was another highlight of the weekend. Then a tribute to Iolaus came on and Michael came out on stage. He said that Twanky was based on his mother! Kevin Sorbo came out and the interact ion between the two was great. Michael auctioned off some stuff for Kevin's charity, "A World Fit for Kids," and a music video tribute to the series was shown. It was good but the song was really sappy. Michael did the "Conscience of the King" monologue from Hamlet and was great. Kevin in Minn eapolis three years ago was really boring and not much has changed since then.
Then the final autograph session. This was the craziest session and the volunteers that Creation e mployed were the rudest people I have ever met. They were screaming at the fans and herded us thro ugh the snakelike Disney line as if we were cattle. Amada once again snuck in line, using a very v ery clever placement of her ID badge. I love subverting authority!!! I do have to admit that the line went very quickly. In line, I wished Willa a safe trip back (she seemed very tired), said hi again to Alison, and told Michael that he needed to get Twanky on Xena...or else! Ebonie thanked m e again for the montage as did her mom and sister and Ebonie personalized my autograph. I told her mom that her episode, "Destiny," was the one that got me hooked and her mom was very excited about that. Everyone that signed was...Ebonie, Willa, Alison, and Michael. Robert Field signed earlier in the day.
A note about the autographs...due to an arrangement I made with Gary, I was able to get the XOM ban ner signed by everyone except Ryan Gosling (because I forgot in all my excitement) and Kevin Sorbo (because he wasn't signing). Everyone else signed the banner. Thanks to Lizzy and James for all t heir help with the banner as well.
After autographs were done, around 9:00, we went back to the hotel (I stayed a while longer to say good bye to some people and ended up getting lost on the way back, nothing new, I always manage to get lost at XOM events). I did enjoy the nice walk though (when I wasn't worried about being mugge d).
We all went down to the hotel bar to have a group dinner. It was a lot of fun despite the worst se rvice I had ever seen at any restaurant. Amiee and Brian weren't there at this point because they had left (Amiee had to wash her demon Callisto make up off) to catch their flight.
Then it was back to Minnesota for more snow!!!