digital_opium | Chicago Con

Well, I have a few hours to play with, so I guess I'll write up my spiffy trip to Chicago for the Supernatural/Buffy/Smallville convention. Woo!

I got into Chicago on Friday, around 1pm. I wanted to stick around and wait for

candygramme, since it would be easier to share a cab (and because I couldn't remember which hotel the con was at), so I fiddled around on the computer and read for four hours. After a bit of "Where are you? I'm there, you're not" play on the phone, we met up and then proceeded to wait for over an hour for our cab to arrive. Turns out the cab driver went to the wrong terminal (more "You're where?" games), and once we had a new cab dispatched, it wasn't long before we were on our way. After checking in and doing all the pre-registration stuff, we had a nice room service supper, and settled down to relax a bit.

My other roommate,

delmar_slashers, showed up, and I met one of the niftiest people at the convention. She's smart, funny, and doesn't stand for a lot of BS. I like that in a person. :P It was a late night, what with a lot of babbling and story-telling, but that was not too bad, since we didn't really have to be anywhere early in the morning, thanks to pre-registering the night before.

The first panel was with Samantha Ferris, who plays Ellen on Supernatural. This woman is amazing. She genuinely liked working on Supernatural, and had a lot of good things to say about everyone involved. Well, okay, she's not all that thrilled with the two new girls this season, feeling like she's been pushed aside for "young T&A", but that's more along the lines of professional gripe than personal. I can't say I blame her much... she's my age, and being cast as a mother of a twenty-something girl. I wouldn't be all that thrilled with it myself. But as she said, she's working as a full-time actor, and how can that be a bad thing? She was a lot of fun to listen to, and she had some great stories, about the set, the boys and their pranks, and the writer's strike. She's under the impression, after talking to various people, that the writer's strike will probably last somewhere from 5 months to a year. Ugh. Boycotting all reality tv, kthxbai. She (and all the guests) were in firm support of the writers, and though it could mean no work for a while, they still believe in what the writers are standing up for.

The second panel was with Fredric Layne, who played the Yellow-Eyed Demon. God, this man is FUNNY. I'm going to do my best to follow his work from now on. He's got a spot in Criminal Minds coming up, where he basically terrorizes a schoolyard with a shotgun. He told the story of when he was doing a scene in the school (a real school), one of the kids - grade-school aged, I believe - looked out the window and said "There's that evil guy! Hey, Mister Evil Guy! Mister Evil Guy!". He said he doesn't mind much being type-cast as the bad guy - says it's one of the best roles to play - and he's gotten more work since he started playing dead guys than he had before. Just goes to show, everyone loves the bad guy. He told a few stories about being on set, and that when he asked how he should play the YED (not having anyone's work to go on), they told him "You've seen how Jeffrey Dean Morgan played it?" "Yes..." "Just like that, only better." Of course, he immediately laughed, and said he was completely joking. (He was joking, Silvia! Don't hurt him!)

Third up was Nicholas Brendan, who played Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was a little bit disappointed. Xander was never my favorite character, but I always liked Nick. However, he really didn't seem to want to be at the con, and came across almost... condescending isn't the right word. Maybe contemptuous? Just... He really didn't seem to want to be there. He was funny, and never openly rude, and some of the things he said were kind of self-deprecating. All in all, he doesn't come across to me as a very happy individual. I know he's gone through, and is still going through some personal stuff. I'm just a little disappointed that he wasn't enjoying himself, and that it came across pretty loud and clear, at least to me. Nick also mentioned that he's been signed to do four episodes of Criminal Minds, as a love interest for one of the characters. He mentioned who, but I don't want to spoil. :)

After the three panels, all three did an autograph session. Creation didn't really have a firm grip on process, and it kept getting a little tangled up with people trying to get in line. Sam was extremely chatty, and the line went slowly, but she really wanted a chance to talk to everyone, and I think was feeling a bit badly that she couldn't spend more time with each person. Fred was very friendly as well, shaking hands and such. Nick talked now and then to people, and he seemed a bit more comfortable, though again, I didn't think he was really enjoying himself. He'd disappear now and then for a few minutes, then come back when there was a line at his table. Thankfully I was about in the middle of the pack, so didn't have to wait incredibly long for autographs. I felt for the guests, except for Nick, I don't think any of them took a break.

All of this took most of the day, and I really didn't have a chance to have supper or anything like that until almost 9pm. Steve Carlson's concert was supposed to start at 9:30, but autographs ran long, and they had to chase everyone out of the ballroom to set up, so while they finished autographs (out in the hall!) and did Steve's sound check, I ran upstairs and had a quick room service supper. I got back downstairs, and they were just finishing up and opened the doors to the ballroom just as I was arriving.

Steve's concert was great. I was only vaguely familiar with his work before seeing him (thanks to

candygramme pimping his work tirelessly), but I left a firm convert to his work. He's talented, has a great voice, is sexy as all hell, and he shares a house with Jensen when Jensen is in LA. How can any of this be a bad thing? Jensen and Jared showed up to see his concert, but sat all the way in the back with their girlfriends. I don't think more than a handful or two of the fans knew they were there. I read that there was some incident with Nick showing up and going over to sit with the boys, but security turned him away. Apparently things got a bit heated, and Nick went upstairs pissed. Can't say I really blame him, though rumors have it (actually, I haven't gone over to the website that reported this alleged event, so it's all rumor to me) that Nick was smelling pretty strongly of alcohol. Who knows.

In any case, Steve's concert was a lot of fun, great music. He came out for one encore song, and when the audience was begging for more, the ringleader from Creation (I can't remember his name now. I want to say Brian, but eh) said that Steve would loved to have done one more, but his voice was fading or some such. Poor boy.

After the concert, we were herded out of the ballroom again, for the staff to set up for the exclusive gold pass dessert party. Again, Creation dropped the ball at this point... when they let us back in, we all got seated. They then let us head up for dessert, which consisted of ice cream, petit fours, chocolate dipped strawberries and a few other things. Several tables... about half the room... stayed back to let the line clear up a bit. By the time we got up there, the only thing left was ice cream. When the server was asked if more trays were being brought out, he apologized and said that there were no more, that was all Creation had ordered. So fully half the room only had ice cream. Way to play ahead, Creation. Now all I really wanted was the ice cream, but let's just say, paying for the gold weekend pass wasn't cheap. Half the room not getting to have dessert? Kind of a kick in the ass, IMO. Especially since the dessert was ONLY for the gold pass people. Ahh well.

Sam and Fred joined us at the dessert, and chatted very briefly on stage before they went around from table to table. They jokingly said it was like speed-dating. They got two minutes at each table (they went around separately) before their handlers tapped them on the shoulder, and then they were off to the next. Fred said this was his first con, and he was really enjoying it, though he did say that once he hit the third hour of autographs he thought it was getting a bit long. Sam asked where we were all from, and she was surprised at how many women had come alone from such great distances. She says she always hears how great Ellen is, a strong female character, kicking ass and taking names, and how Ellen is a very empowering woman. She said she thinks that women who are brave enough to travel alone from so far away are much more empowering, in her opinion. I thought that sentiment alone was pretty empowering. Nick didn't show up at the dessert party. The guy from Creation claimed he was very tired and had already gone to bed, but in the light of the rumors that came after, I suspect Nick was just very pissed off and had no inclination to play nice anymore that day. Like I said, can't say I blame him much.

We didn't get upstairs til probably after 1am, and didn't get to sleep until after 2am. That wouldn't seem so bad, but we had to be up at 5am, since they'd pushed the gold pass breakfast up to 6:30. Jensen and Jared couldn't get the last flight back to Vancouver, had to take the second to last, and so they had to push everything back by half an hour, so they could get everything in and still make their flight.

Oh, my god. This is turning into a novel. I think I'll stop here with day two, and finish this up in another post. Yes, I'll make sure I finish, since day three is ALL J2, ALL THE TIME! I'll also post a few links to a few other journals, with pictures and videos. I haven't gotten my crappy disposable camera pics developed yet, and there are tons of people who got way better shots, so I'll let them have all the glory.

OH. And let me mention the woman who bought, at the first auction, one of the stage banners with signatures from all the guests. It only cost her $1020. I think my husband would have killed me if I'd brought home something like that and said "It only cost me a grand, honey!" She didn't have to worry though, her husband was there with her, and between the two of them, they also bid on/won probably another thousand dollars worth of stuff. I'm simply boggled by this. Yeesh.

More later!

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Shattrath City
Current Music: Steve Carlson - Wasted Jamie

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Date: 2007-11-14 07:33 pm (UTC)

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