Friday & Saturday MWC reports
May. 27th, 2007 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hildy89Friday
Like I said, Friday started way way too early after our Chicago ordeal, but at least I was finally clean and presentable when I stood in line for con registration. I finally met up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
normadesmond, suzy_queue and met nydia_s for the first time. After getting our badges, I went into the dealer's room. I made a stop by jennetj's beading table to ask for "tech support" with my beaded lanyard, which had sadly become disattached from the jump rings. She fixed it back up, so Sheppard and Giles could continue their MediaWest adventures together. The feeding frenzy continued around me in earnest, although it's nowhere as scary as previous years. Zine production does appear to have slowed down.
Upstairs I did somewhat better. A sharp eyedsuzy_queue spotted a Sheppard/Weir keychain with one on one side and one on another at Media Mugs. I also found several smaller versions of SGA pictures, including a Weir, a cast one, and a Weir/Sheppard one. It's still damned hard to find anything with Weir included, probably harder as we go along.
I went to two panels on Friday. The first one wasneadods' panel on the Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventures. I bought "Chimes of Midnight" off her, so I can enjoy more 8 & Charley. She had also picked me up a WWII era mystery called Billy Boyle that looks interesting. The second panel opposite the John Barrowman panel was the lone "Blood Ties" panel with zinelady on the panel. Good audience, but most seemed split on how well the show was doing. The ones who hadn't read the books felt like they were missing something.
Supernatural is THE white hot fandom this year, hands down. Heroes is following a close second. Doctor Who is represented well in the panels and the occasional dealer, but not as hot as I'd expect honestly. Stargate Atlantis is doing well, but clearly reeling from the changes coming down the pike. Because I was so backed up in watching the episodes, I hesitated on going to any of the panels, because quite honestly it's a bitca to have to censor yourself to not talk about the spoilers. Easier on everyone to avoid the panels entirely.
I had pre-vid dinner with a large crowd of friends includingneadods, jennetj, signeh, zinelady, isamom and a few others at Applebys. I'm mildly surprised we managed to get back in time for the start of the vids. I've occasionally missed the first couple of vids. They were showing the winners from the previous year, which was good for people who'd missed the last con or wanted a refresher.
Avoiding spoilers is harder with the vids. I understand it's hard to tell someone not to use certain scenes or episodes, near impossible in this day and age of easily ahemmable material. But it was frustrating. I'm glad that I watched the Supernatural two part finale, because there were a few moments that I might have been spoiled for going in. Supernatural made up the bulk of the vids. Even those of us who liked the show were a little bit frustrated to watch the same scenes and footage over and over again. Some were extremely well done, but still, it gets tiresome. Vid Weasels however did a SGA vid and warned people about "Sunday" spoilers. If you didn't know the fandom, of course you were kinda confused. I actually kept my eyes blocked and down and didn't watch. I haven't watched the episode yet, although I know the big spoilers.
My body was also not liking me. As I mentioned in Thursday's report, my body had a perverse sense of humor. If the Red Queen was tolerable that day, she was raging out of control on Friday. I had planned for that eventuality, but not well enough. By the time the end of the vids were here, I was hurting like you wouldn't believe.
That prompted a nearly ugly incident in the bathroom during the break. That MediaWest allows for pets is lovely and it's nice to see the parade of dogs, cats, and the occasional ferret. With my allergies, I tend to play dodge-em with the dog owners a little. I went into the bathroom with raging hormones, turned a corner and there were two largish Doberman style dogs blocking one entrance to the stalls. There was another entrance, but at that point, this was the last thing I needed or wanted to deal with, so I suspect I came off as snappish and less than understanding.
Aside from the SPN vids, it was time to welcome back Apocalypse West to Media West. They brought a "catchup" reel covering the last five years of their work. I'd joked withlizbetann about the 7th inning stretch the runner offers before diving into those vids and sure enough it happened. Funny part was that was a pretty quick 90 minutes worth of vids, compared to some groups. It was nice to see old fandoms, like Witchblade and JLU. I still love neonhummingbird's vids. tv_elf is a busy little vidder and a demented one. The "I can't wait to be king" for Anakin/Darth Vader was quite... inspired. Or something.
Other ones I remember: the tributes to "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" tv show, the Hiro & Ando vid to the Pokemon theme (which I didn't recognize -- bad me!). The main SPN one I remember adoring was "Enter the Sandman" but there were others too, just they tended to blend together.
I crawled into bed at a little past midnight and decided I would sleep in the next day. I was hoping the extra sleep would help some of my physical woes.
Saturday
I slept in this morning, thinking it would do me some restorative good. I didn't really need to be anywhere early. I did a swing by the Apocalypse West room to see if they were alive/awake/open after the vids the previous night and managed to grab one of the last two copies of their compilation set of dvds, including the one year I missed. I had a chance to have a nice chat with bothlizbetann and diannelamerc. It was good to have some of the initial people I remember from MWC back after a long absence.
So I wound up having an early lunch at Hummingbirds before doing a second hall crawl of the dealers I missed like Jerry Ohlinger's room of stills and Tales of the White Hart. I was shocked shocked I say that I came out of Tales of the White Hart without spending a dime. Usually I'm dropping money of filk music cds, but nothing new grabbed me. Ohlinger's didn't bring as much tv stills this year. He seemed to focus heavily on the movie stills, including a good chunk of classic horror, classic pirate movies, and older actors and actresses. He was one of the few dealers with any Blood Ties stills however, so I wound up with a Vicky & Henry picture and one of Vicki as well. I also bought on a whim a still of Cary Grant. I didn't instantly recognize the scene, but I liked the almost noirish aspect to Cary Grant in the embrace of Eva Marie Saint while she's still holding a gun. Ironically it's from "North by Northwest", one of the Hitchcock movies I haven't seen.
Alien Entertainment had the whole lineup of the official Doctor Who toys. They even had an inflatable Dalek outside their door, until he sprung a leak. After seeingneadods's sonic screwdriver at dinner, I caved like a craven girl and bought my own sonic screwdriver, but at least it's a useful toy. It's a flashlight... excuse me, torch!
After catching up on email and LJ for a little while, I went to my Canadian tv panel withjennetj and signeh, covering everything from "Slings & Arrows" and "Da Vinci's Inquest" to older shows like "Traders" and "Street Legal" and newer fare like "Little Mosque on the Prairie" and "Corner Gas", both of which are Canadian comedies. We diverted a little to talk about dvds and regions and thanking god for Canada being in the same region as the US. If they ever decide to split off, we'll be in trouble.
Remember my assertion that maybe I'm better off avoiding the SGA panels? The point was proven when I went to the panel on SGA secondary characters. Lorne and Zelenka were heavy favorites amongst the group. No one liked any of the female characters at all. Heightmeyer was roundly vivisected for her lack of actual skill at her job. How much of this is a lack of technical checking on the writers' parts I don't know. Cadman was mostly hated in "Duet". I don't know whether they liked her more in "Critical Mass" or not. Considering the can of worms that episode was, I'm not sure if I wanted to ask. David Hewlett, yes, did a wonderful job playing both sides of it, but I wish they'd remember she was there. Bates wasn't even mentioned and I was afraid to bring him up. I also didn't point out my annoyance of losing characters like Bates and Kavanagh who didn't necessarily agree with Weir and Sheppard. Quite frankly they need someone to offer the voice of paranoia, rather than pat them on the head. I just felt very uncomfortable in my viewpoints, especially surrounded by other women.
Dinner was withnormadesmond, nydia_s and suzy_queue. Hummingbirds has added music this year. They're playing all tv themes and movie soundtracks all the time, so you'll have a blank moment as you try to remember what you're hearing. They had cranked it up a little loud during dinner. After struggling with an ahemmable copy of the new episode, I came downstairs and joined the three of them for various episodes, including DW's "Girl in the Fireplace", B5's "And the Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place" & "Shadow Dancing", Bones' "Man in the Fallout Shelter". It's been so long since I've watched Babylon 5. I sense a marathon coming.
Like I said, Friday started way way too early after our Chicago ordeal, but at least I was finally clean and presentable when I stood in line for con registration. I finally met up with
normadesmond, suzy_queue and met nydia_s for the first time. After getting our badges, I went into the dealer's room. I made a stop by jennetj's beading table to ask for "tech support" with my beaded lanyard, which had sadly become disattached from the jump rings. She fixed it back up, so Sheppard and Giles could continue their MediaWest adventures together. The feeding frenzy continued around me in earnest, although it's nowhere as scary as previous years. Zine production does appear to have slowed down.Upstairs I did somewhat better. A sharp eyed
suzy_queue spotted a Sheppard/Weir keychain with one on one side and one on another at Media Mugs. I also found several smaller versions of SGA pictures, including a Weir, a cast one, and a Weir/Sheppard one. It's still damned hard to find anything with Weir included, probably harder as we go along. I went to two panels on Friday. The first one was
neadods' panel on the Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventures. I bought "Chimes of Midnight" off her, so I can enjoy more 8 & Charley. She had also picked me up a WWII era mystery called Billy Boyle that looks interesting. The second panel opposite the John Barrowman panel was the lone "Blood Ties" panel with zinelady on the panel. Good audience, but most seemed split on how well the show was doing. The ones who hadn't read the books felt like they were missing something. Supernatural is THE white hot fandom this year, hands down. Heroes is following a close second. Doctor Who is represented well in the panels and the occasional dealer, but not as hot as I'd expect honestly. Stargate Atlantis is doing well, but clearly reeling from the changes coming down the pike. Because I was so backed up in watching the episodes, I hesitated on going to any of the panels, because quite honestly it's a bitca to have to censor yourself to not talk about the spoilers. Easier on everyone to avoid the panels entirely.
I had pre-vid dinner with a large crowd of friends including
neadods, jennetj, signeh, zinelady, isamom and a few others at Applebys. I'm mildly surprised we managed to get back in time for the start of the vids. I've occasionally missed the first couple of vids. They were showing the winners from the previous year, which was good for people who'd missed the last con or wanted a refresher.Avoiding spoilers is harder with the vids. I understand it's hard to tell someone not to use certain scenes or episodes, near impossible in this day and age of easily ahemmable material. But it was frustrating. I'm glad that I watched the Supernatural two part finale, because there were a few moments that I might have been spoiled for going in. Supernatural made up the bulk of the vids. Even those of us who liked the show were a little bit frustrated to watch the same scenes and footage over and over again. Some were extremely well done, but still, it gets tiresome. Vid Weasels however did a SGA vid and warned people about "Sunday" spoilers. If you didn't know the fandom, of course you were kinda confused. I actually kept my eyes blocked and down and didn't watch. I haven't watched the episode yet, although I know the big spoilers.
My body was also not liking me. As I mentioned in Thursday's report, my body had a perverse sense of humor. If the Red Queen was tolerable that day, she was raging out of control on Friday. I had planned for that eventuality, but not well enough. By the time the end of the vids were here, I was hurting like you wouldn't believe.
That prompted a nearly ugly incident in the bathroom during the break. That MediaWest allows for pets is lovely and it's nice to see the parade of dogs, cats, and the occasional ferret. With my allergies, I tend to play dodge-em with the dog owners a little. I went into the bathroom with raging hormones, turned a corner and there were two largish Doberman style dogs blocking one entrance to the stalls. There was another entrance, but at that point, this was the last thing I needed or wanted to deal with, so I suspect I came off as snappish and less than understanding.
Aside from the SPN vids, it was time to welcome back Apocalypse West to Media West. They brought a "catchup" reel covering the last five years of their work. I'd joked with
lizbetann about the 7th inning stretch the runner offers before diving into those vids and sure enough it happened. Funny part was that was a pretty quick 90 minutes worth of vids, compared to some groups. It was nice to see old fandoms, like Witchblade and JLU. I still love neonhummingbird's vids. tv_elf is a busy little vidder and a demented one. The "I can't wait to be king" for Anakin/Darth Vader was quite... inspired. Or something.Other ones I remember: the tributes to "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" tv show, the Hiro & Ando vid to the Pokemon theme (which I didn't recognize -- bad me!). The main SPN one I remember adoring was "Enter the Sandman" but there were others too, just they tended to blend together.
I crawled into bed at a little past midnight and decided I would sleep in the next day. I was hoping the extra sleep would help some of my physical woes.
Saturday
I slept in this morning, thinking it would do me some restorative good. I didn't really need to be anywhere early. I did a swing by the Apocalypse West room to see if they were alive/awake/open after the vids the previous night and managed to grab one of the last two copies of their compilation set of dvds, including the one year I missed. I had a chance to have a nice chat with both
lizbetann and diannelamerc. It was good to have some of the initial people I remember from MWC back after a long absence.So I wound up having an early lunch at Hummingbirds before doing a second hall crawl of the dealers I missed like Jerry Ohlinger's room of stills and Tales of the White Hart. I was shocked shocked I say that I came out of Tales of the White Hart without spending a dime. Usually I'm dropping money of filk music cds, but nothing new grabbed me. Ohlinger's didn't bring as much tv stills this year. He seemed to focus heavily on the movie stills, including a good chunk of classic horror, classic pirate movies, and older actors and actresses. He was one of the few dealers with any Blood Ties stills however, so I wound up with a Vicky & Henry picture and one of Vicki as well. I also bought on a whim a still of Cary Grant. I didn't instantly recognize the scene, but I liked the almost noirish aspect to Cary Grant in the embrace of Eva Marie Saint while she's still holding a gun. Ironically it's from "North by Northwest", one of the Hitchcock movies I haven't seen.
Alien Entertainment had the whole lineup of the official Doctor Who toys. They even had an inflatable Dalek outside their door, until he sprung a leak. After seeing
neadods's sonic screwdriver at dinner, I caved like a craven girl and bought my own sonic screwdriver, but at least it's a useful toy. It's a flashlight... excuse me, torch!After catching up on email and LJ for a little while, I went to my Canadian tv panel with
jennetj and signeh, covering everything from "Slings & Arrows" and "Da Vinci's Inquest" to older shows like "Traders" and "Street Legal" and newer fare like "Little Mosque on the Prairie" and "Corner Gas", both of which are Canadian comedies. We diverted a little to talk about dvds and regions and thanking god for Canada being in the same region as the US. If they ever decide to split off, we'll be in trouble.Remember my assertion that maybe I'm better off avoiding the SGA panels? The point was proven when I went to the panel on SGA secondary characters. Lorne and Zelenka were heavy favorites amongst the group. No one liked any of the female characters at all. Heightmeyer was roundly vivisected for her lack of actual skill at her job. How much of this is a lack of technical checking on the writers' parts I don't know. Cadman was mostly hated in "Duet". I don't know whether they liked her more in "Critical Mass" or not. Considering the can of worms that episode was, I'm not sure if I wanted to ask. David Hewlett, yes, did a wonderful job playing both sides of it, but I wish they'd remember she was there. Bates wasn't even mentioned and I was afraid to bring him up. I also didn't point out my annoyance of losing characters like Bates and Kavanagh who didn't necessarily agree with Weir and Sheppard. Quite frankly they need someone to offer the voice of paranoia, rather than pat them on the head. I just felt very uncomfortable in my viewpoints, especially surrounded by other women.
Dinner was with
normadesmond, nydia_s and suzy_queue. Hummingbirds has added music this year. They're playing all tv themes and movie soundtracks all the time, so you'll have a blank moment as you try to remember what you're hearing. They had cranked it up a little loud during dinner. After struggling with an ahemmable copy of the new episode, I came downstairs and joined the three of them for various episodes, including DW's "Girl in the Fireplace", B5's "And the Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place" & "Shadow Dancing", Bones' "Man in the Fallout Shelter". It's been so long since I've watched Babylon 5. I sense a marathon coming.
