HIGHLA-L Digest - 27 Aug 2001 to 29 Aug 2001 (#2001-249)
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Wed, 29 Aug 2001 22:00:01 -0400
There are 3 messages totalling 375 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Trilby's Con Report: Thursday
2. Trilby's Con Report: Friday (2)
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Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 23:49:54 -0400
From: Trilby <trilby23@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Trilby's Con Report: Thursday
THURSDAY, Aug 23, 2001
Arrival and Pre-con activities
DISCLAIMER: I'm very bad with names. I'm hopelessly dyslexic
with names, too (F. Ash McBraun *groan*). So if I've mangled,
forgotten, or dismembered your name, my humble apologies in
advance.
Arrived in LA at 9AM or so, and the fun commenced on the shuttle
to the hotel!! Barney and Draven were riding with me, both from the
Holy Ground forum as well as other lists. (There were a LOT of
Holy Ground members at the con - I didn't even know the forum
existed till someone mentioned it a few months ago!) Got to the
Westin and did the Hotel Shuffle (registered, but couldn't clock in
till 3PM) and went straight to Con Ops to volunteer.
Big John Bierly and John Mosby were there already, along with
Lynn, Janean, Kerry, Tiffany (who looks like Elizabeth Gracen only
shorter), and several other staffmembers and volunteers, toting
barges and lifting bales, and preparations for Reunion just kept
rolling along (very smoothly, as far as I could tell). I spent the next
several hours under the confident direction of Kerry, who put about
8 of us to work stuffing con packets. You know those mylar bags
with the "Reunion" logo, and the duffel bags all that neat con info
inside? We had an assembly line of cheerful worker bees, folding
programs and stuffing bags. We had it down to a science of truly
impressive efficiency.
(A word here about the beautiful con souvenir program: Those of
you who didn't go missed a work of art. There were spectacular
pictures of all the guests, with bios, and memorable series quotes:
"Okay, everyone who's an Immortal raise their hand." "Choose
your ground, choose your weapon, and face what is to come." And
on the inside front cover: a tribute to Myles Ferguson. Brilliant,
thoughtful, lovely work.)
Just when we thought we were finished with the con packets, John
and John brought in God knows how many MORE boxes of duffle
bags. It looked for a moment as though Kerry would have a
seizure (or would seize someone else), but thanks to the cheerful
efforts of Tiffany (who looks like Elizabeth Gracen only shorter),
Lisa, Sherry, Catherine, and at least two other people whose
names I can't remember (hangs head in shame), we got everything
done by 3PM, and most of us volunteers went to check in.
(Oh, BTW - those little blue programs? With the schedules that
were so valuable to everyone? That was my position in the
assembly line. There's an 80%+ chance that I handled your
program with my own well- scrubbed little fingers. I feel so close to
all of you. Let's savour the moment.)
Now, where was I? Oh, yes! Check-in and a shower, and then
down to the Lobby Court to meet as many HL people as I could,
and to try and snag a table for the A.T.H. (newsgroup) gathering.
Lo and behold, the whole Lobby Court was one big bar area, with a
big conversation pit: chairs, sofas, tables, all movable and all
comfortable. There was plenty of room to congregate, and the
Lobby Court became the place to hang out in between programs.
People pulled chairs and sofas together to create gathering areas
of various sizes. I joined a group at random, and it became the
A.T.H. table - Jette, John Mosby, and a couple of other ATH'ers
were there already, so we set up a (tiny) "ATH" sign in case
anyone came looking.
An ever-changing group of wonderful people came through the
Court that evening, people who up till then I had only known by
their "handles" on various lists, or lurkers that I didn't know at all:
Cassandra, Tracy, Rennie (Oh my GOD, THANK YOU Rennie),
GOH Ginjer Buchanan, Jan, Lyria, and at least a dozen others.
Much amusement ensued when it was discovered that I was a
ConVirgin (I did go to DragonCon once, but only to 1 and a half HL
tracks and the rest of the time I hung out with friends, so that was
Con Foreplay at best), and I was a little surprised to find that there
were MANY first-timers there. (May I also say that it was a
*grand* first-time Con experience!!)
General merriment and tequila shooters ensued, until it was 7PM
and time for the "unofficial" Con entertainment for us early-arrivers.
We all trooped up to the theatre, where the committee had a
special treat for us: Song Vids. For those of you who may not
know, Song Vids are videos made from HL clips (or the fandom of
your choice) set to music. There were a few classics
(Scarborough Fair", "Code of Silence"), and a few new treats
("Blow 'em Away" seemed to be the crowd's favourite). (And I was
singing "It's In His Kiss: The Shoop Shoop Song" for the next two
days! *G*)
Then back to the Court of course, for more shrieks, hugs, meeting
of friends, and general revelry unto the wee small hours. During the
evening, F. Braun McAsh (there, I got it right) and Anthony De
Longis came in and were immediately surrounded by friends and
fans. The two of them wandered about the hotel and hung out in
the bar most of the weekend (when they weren't working), without
any obvious bodyguards (but then I suppose they didn't need any -
who'd mess with a swordmaster?).
Finally, realizing that it was past midnight and my body clock was
insisting it was past 3AM, I trundled up to my room ... where I had
to wake up my poor, poor roommate to let me in (Hi Helene!!)
because my room key suddenly didn't work anymore! I fell into a
big, soft bed with huge soft white pillows, and went to sleep,
psyched and ready for Friday!!
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Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 00:08:36 -0400
From: Trilby <trilby23@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: Trilby's Con Report: Friday
FRIDAY, August 24, 2001
On Friday, I dragged myself out of bed very early, made coffee, and
went in search of breakfast, which I suspected might be the only
real meal of the day. Lynn, Janean, and whoever else was
responsible, let me say right now that this hotel was, to me, a
GREAT venue. There were coffeepots with complimentary coffee in
every room, along with both ceramic mugs and disposable cups,
and in the Court there was a little concession stand that sold
pastries, bagels, fresh fruit, yogurt, and juices (and more coffee
*G*). I bought breakfast for about $3 and a couple of pieces of fruit
to snack on during the day.
In the lobby I met the charming KDKrah and her adorable husband,
and we ended up having breakfast together every morning. Thanks
so much for being there every day! I loved meeting you both.
Our MC for the weekend was the wonderful and very special Big
John Bierly, who acquitted himself with grace, humour, and wit. (In
his own words, "Any weekend that Elizabeth Gracen says to you,
'Oh my God, I've got lipstick all over you, come here and let me
wipe it off' is a good weekend!") Bravo, John, and many many
thanks!!
On Friday and Saturday, there were HL and HL-related films
showing in the theatre all day and into the evening. Friday morning
started with both the Blooper reels, the Romance Reel, and the
Battle Reel. I watched with Tiberius, who's just delightful.
After those came a truly excellent documentary, directed by
Elizabeth Gracen, called "The Damn Deal" - conversations with
three drag queens who compete in female impersonator contests.
Interspersed are segments with Peter Wingfield in drag (and as
someone else said, he DOES look like Dustin Hoffman in
"Tootsie"). (Personal observation, YMMV: I couldn't help but be
struck by something the first of the three men (Spencer/"Kelly")
said - words to the effect that "Kelly" (his persona as a female
impersonator) is still "him", only with certain personality traits
emphasized. To me, that's very much like being online. Y'all
mostly don't see Grouchy Trilby, or Pissed Off Trilby, or Depressed
Trilby. When I'm online, I put my "best foot forward". Just a
thought.)
At 1PM, the GOH programming began with Maureen Russell. She
showed several interview tapes from "The Best Of Highlander", I
think mostly clips that didn't make it into the final product. I
particularly enjoyed the joint interview with Jim Byrnes and Peter
Wingfield, a fairly long segment. They laughed and joked together,
and commented on the way the two of them hit it off immediately
when they met, and how that camaraderie enriched the Joe/Methos
relationship onscreen. There was also a clip of (correct me if I
name the wrong person) David A saying that when he was casting
Methos, he was specifically looking to cast against type: you'd
expect a John Rhys-Davies sort, and he cast Peter Wingfield
because he was so *not* that. *G*
Next came a screening of "Legacy", with Elizabeth Gracen and
Nadia Cameron-Blakely commenting on the episode. Both ladies
looked smashing; EG has let her hair grow long (while Nadia has
cut hers short).
This was Nadia's first Con too. ("They asked me to come, and I
said, 'Me? Why? Nobody's going to know who 'Rebecca' was."
She was assured by the audience that both she and Rebecca were
both remembered well, and with great affection.) Big John joined
the ladies for part of the session (gee, wonder why? *G*), and he
immediately dubbed Rebecca's husband John as "Kenny Rogers"
("You got to know when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to walk
away, AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHEN TO RUN!") Nadia said that
(I think) David A told her afterwards that killing off Rebecca was the
single worst HL mistake he ever made (much applause and loud
agreement from the audience). Nadia also said that Rebecca
could certainly have whipped Luther's butt ("She was his teacher,
but she didn't teach him everything") - more applause and cheering.
EG made fun of her own attempt at a Cockney accent when she
was supposed to be a French thief; both ladies commented at
some length about how much fun it was wearing the Musketeer
costumes. They were totally delightful! (Later, Ken Gord said that
Rebecca was probably the hardest role for HL he had to cast,
because the actress had to show so many different aspects of the
character in such a limited amount of screen time, and that he
couldn't imagine anyone doing a better job than Nadia. No
argument here!)
And next up was an hour of Q&A with the wonderful Stan Kirsch.
Stan looked *good*. He looked cheerful, happy, and full of energy
and high spirits. He was constantly cracking jokes. (Q: "Are you
going to do another J.A.G.?" A: "There's *another* J.A.G.?
Where? Tell me about it!") He said that as far as he knew there
were no plans for him to return to J.A.G. and told us to "write
CBS". Someone from the audience (um, me) shouted, as a joke,
"What's the address?" Stan just laughed and said he didn't know -
but the next person to ask a question said "I used to work for CBS
and the address is..." (I missed it but I think it was 2700 Wilshire
Blvd). Stan asked, "What did you do at CBS?" The woman
answered, totally straight-faced, "Hookers and nurses, mostly."
"Sorry, I thought you said hookers?" Stan asked. "I did. Hookers
and nurses." Stan was floored - it turned out she was an actress
who had done a lot of soaps. *G*
The best part came at the very end. A young woman got up and
explained that they only recently got the fifth season where she
lives (somewhere in Australia?), and she wanted to know, "Why did
they kill off Richie?" The audience went "Woooooo!" and Stan
walked back and forth with the mike for a minute, grinning, before
he said, "So we're gonna go there, huh? Well, it's like this. The
Powers That BE (emphasis was his) came to me and said, 'We
need to finish off the season with something really big, so we're
going to kill off a really popular character, played by a really
popular actor, because that will have a big impact on the audience.
So we're going to kill off Richie, because he's so popular, and
you're so popular.' And I said, 'Gee, thanks for the flattery ....
ADRIAN!!" (emphasis his). The audience went absolutely wild!!
Next was a screening of "Band of Brothers", with James Horan
commenting. He was tall and comely, with long hair (past his
shoulders). I was only able to catch half of this, because I was
volunteering at Registration, but he said that his (film?) "Song Of
The Vampire" is expected to be released soon, probably on video,
and that he'll be doing "Dracula" again in Louisville (KY?) from Oct
4 through Nov 4. (Big John lives near there and said he had seen
James in "Dracula" before, and it was awesome!) He'll be doing a
Civil War movie soon (for TNT?), playing a Confederate officer. He
also brought in a facsimile of Grayson's sword that a friend had
made for him, for the auction. (I believe it went for $850.)
During the screening of BOB, he talked about how great it would
have been to explore more about Grayson's relationship with
Darius. ("And I know there's a lot of fanfic about it out there." The
audience laughed and he said, joking, "Yeah, I've hoid about that"
with a Bugs Bunny kind of accent.) He also talked about his
scene with Tessa: "Here's this gorgeous woman, and she turns
around and says to me, 'You look good.' I went gaga for a few
moments, until she said, 'Good for the role, I mean.' " *G*
About that time, I had to take off to work the Registration desk.
BTW, I can NOT impress on you enough how nicely the volunteers
were treated. All the "veterans" were very patient with us newbies,
making sure we were comfortable and confidant in what we were
doing before they left us to our posts. Y'all did GREAT!!
After I finished my stint at Registration, I caught the last half of the
readings from "An Evening At Joe's". The hit of the evening was
Stan, reading Richie's letters "From The Grave". He gave it such a
wonderfully wry inflection, adding offhand comments: "Mac: Where
to begin? I suppose the first thing I'd like to tell you is that I forgive
you. (and then he added, "But I'd be a liar!") I'm aware that what
happened wasn't your intention (at which point Jim Byrnes added,
"asshole!" *G*) As it wasn't the first time I was confronted by this
type of trouble either, I'M FAIRLY CERTAIN I WAS DOOMED
ANYWAY." I don't know if this will "read" as funny as it "played",
but it was truly, truly hysterical!! The audience was laughing so
hard that Stan kept saying, "Hey, this is serious stuff!", but he was
laughing too. There wasn't any hint of malice or bitterness, either,
not that I could see. Stan was just being funny, and the audience
was totally in stitches!
After the readings, there was a break in the programming, but Stan
was scheduled to be available for an hour to meet with whoever
wanted to show up. I went towards the room, but ran into several
people who said the room was already packed to the walls, with a
long line down the hall, so I decided to find a quiet place and grab
something to eat. My mistake - I heard later that the wonderful
Con folks had found Stan a bigger room (the theatre, I think), and
moved the whole thing there, so the group meeting with Stan went
on for I have no idea how long!
At 7:30PM, I caught the famous Gillian and Donna show: "A HL
Episode From Script To Screen". Both ladies looked great, they
were "up" and energetic, full of fun. They went through the process
of writing a script, starting from scratch. (For freelance writers,
they had a lot of wonderful advice: "If you're lucky enough to get a
pitch meeting (where you discuss possible script ideas with one of
TPTB), go in with 5 or 6 ideas, because you're going to hear, Done
that, Done that, Don't like that. And you need more than 'Duncan
meets an Immortal who's addicted to Quickenings', because the
next question will be, 'And ....?' "
The ladies went through the frustrations and joys of putting a script
together, getting calls about what had to be changed (Gillian
frequently held a toy dart gun to her head whenever she mimed
picking up the phone), and about losing whole subplots because
things were running long. (It was hysterical watching Duncan from
"Something Wicked" bully a Watcher in a phone booth .... as the
phone booth slowly fogged up from their breath because it was
freezing outside!) They were a delight, and they worked together
so well that I have no idea whether the program was scripted or ad-
libbed. Ladies, you has me rolling on the floor! At some point (I
couldn't see or hear sometimes due to people coming and going)
the dart from Gillian's gun went off, and at the end of the show an
audience member brought it back to her. I overheard her saying
that HL fans are so honest that with all the cons she's done, she's
never yet lost a dart!
The final program of the evening was the Sword Choreography
Demonstration with Anthony De Longis and F.Braun McAsh. They
took the stage to demonstrate how they build a swordfight. They
used a fight they had done for a recently-filmed episode of
MythQuest ("Sir Caradoc", I think) that takes place in Camelot. I
think they said that it was their very first time onscreen together!
Anthony plays Lancelot, and Braun plays the antagonist ("He's
NOT a bad guy!"), King Meleagar. They gave a lot of emphasis (in
this and in other programs) to creating a fight that tells a story.
They showed videos, shot in (I think) Braun's yard ("We probably
scared the neighbours"), shot from the POV's of each of the two
characters, to give us an idea of how things started out. Eventually,
each character was fighting with two weapons, and they didn't
know how to get back to one weapon each. "So we called Gillian.
Help, Gillian!" And Gillian wrote a brief dialogue that allowed each
man to get rid of a weapon. At this point, they had been through
the choreography several times, going from (relatively) slow motion
to full fighting speed, and both men were sweating and breathing
heavily. Anthony said, "We're getting too old for this," and
someone from the audience shouted out, "NEVER!" Anthony
gallantly kissed his sword to her in salute, and they went on with
the scene - and it turned out that Anthony's line was the first part of
the dialogue Gillian had written for them! *G* (MythQuest looks
like tons of fun, BTW!)
Braun went on to talk about how they had to get the shot done
quickly, because the sun was going down (they called it "chasing
the light"). "How'd we get that neat effect with the light coming
through the fog? We were losing the sun! How'd we get that great
effect of the sun coming through the trees between us? We were
chasing the light, that's how!"
The program was fun, exciting, and tremendously informative, and
the audience reaction was *great*. What a way to end the first day
of Reunion!!
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Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 01:51:57 -0500
From: Jen <data@cyberg8t.com>
Subject: Re: Trilby's Con Report: Friday
Trilby wrote:
>
> After those came a truly excellent documentary, directed by
> Elizabeth Gracen, called "The Damn Deal" - conversations with
> three drag queens who compete in female impersonator contests.
Ohh, sounds really interesting. Is that shown on cable??
Jen
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 27 Aug 2001 to 29 Aug 2001 (#2001-249)
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