Life of a FanGirl

Hope you had the best day ever!

We started our day with the Stargate panel - Lexa Doig, Michael Shanks, and Paul McGillion.  It was fun.  Lexa sneezed a lot and claimed she was allergic to Michael.  Michael said there would be more Stargate, at some point.  He very diplomatically answered a fan's question about SGU, saying that he liked being asked to appear in it and thought it had great production values and actors, but he thought the tone of the show did not fit with the previous Stargate shows.

L wanted to see Chris Sarandon, so we stuck around for him.  He was very interesting, but I'd only seen one of his films (The Princess Bride), so I was lost when they talked about the others.

Next, we saw Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day.  They talked about filming on Eureka and Wil's love of farting in small enclosed spaces.  Lots of gaming talk, but they somehow make it sound interesting, even to a non-gamer.  Each time people left after a panel, we moved up.  At this point, we were in the first section of the room and didn't want to lose our good seats.  We both needed to go to the bathroom and grab a snack, so we took turns.

Dirk Benedict was a hoot. His two moderators couldn't get a word in edgewise. He did this stream-of-consciousness monolog about raising his sons alone in a small cabin in Montana and having to "become a woman".  Mentioned he doesn't eat meat or sugar, but still loves his cigars.  He crossed the line into political incorectness several times on the subject of sex and women and veered into assholery when he talked about the damned Hollywood liberals and how they all did coke and were always trying to shut him up.  He stated that his cast mates on The A Team were all conservatives, so that's why they got along so well.

Lastly, there was the main attraction, Sir Patrick Stewart.  He was definitely worth the wait.  He is amazing and much livlier and funnier than Picard.  He started out by pretending he thought he was in Canada and said his Star Trek castmates taught him to be funny and he is still working on it.  Told a hilarious story about meeting Sting on the set of Dune.  He had no idea who he was and thought he played in a police band.  Talked about his audition for Picard and how his friends all told him to sign the contract, because the show would be cancelled after one season and he could go back home with a lot of money.  I don't consider myself a huge TNG fan, but he definitely has charm and wit.  He said complimentary things about Shatner, which endeared him to me also.

Just signed up for the Seattle Sherlock con.  It sounds like it could be really good.



http://www.sherlock-seattle.org/#!home/mainPage

My hangover headache from this morning is back, so I can't write a long post right now, but I just want to say that Lubricus was the best con experience ever!  What a great bunch of people.  Thank you so much to the organizers.  It was amazing.

The last 10 days have been absolutely crazy - three cons in the Seattle area and a family vacation to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.  I don't know if I'm coming or going!

Emerald City Comicon was a drive-by con experience.  I was there for approximately four hours.  I attended one panel (Falling Skies), went through the dealers room, hung out with ria_oaks, and got Jason Momoa's autograph.

Bitchin' Party (Pacificon) was a fun slash weekend, with lots of squee, interesting discussions, and too many fandoms to investigate in one lifetime.  I went to the Bandom panel just out of curiosity, but I still feel quite mystified by the fandom.  And pictionary was hilarious, but also baffling.  My favorite panel was 'Id-Fic', which I went into with no expectations, but found myself really challenged and engaged.  I found the idea that we write or read fanfic as an exploration of our deepest desires or problems to be very interesting.  I have to do a lot more analyzing to figure out how that applies to myself.  Other fun panels were 'The Evolution of Fandom'  and 'Sherlock BBC'.  The vid show was great and dance party was fun but exhausting. 

Norwescon - this was my first time at Norwescon, despite living in the Northwest for years.  I really enjoyed it and thought it was a really well-run con.  I was badge # 3058, and there were still people registering after me, so it is a well-attended con.  I really liked the handy-sized bound schedule book, which made it super easy to keep track of what was going on.  I went to nine panels in the day and a half that I was there.  A highlight was 'Romancing the Book' which had all the participants rolling in the aisles with laughter at the hilarious banter between Sir R L McSterlingthong and Jean Johnson.  I definitely plan to check out one of Johnson's books, but I would be afraid to go near the zany McSterlingthong.  "And then the Blond Kissed the Gryffindor' was fun because it was all about HP fanfic, my favorite subject!  One of my favorite writers,oldenuf2nb , was on the panel, so that was a treat.  I caught a fleeting glimpse of dysonrules on Sunday morning at the Quidditch game, but never got a chance to talk to her.   The Quidditch was fun to watch, very fast-paced and competitive.  The dealers room and art show were awesome. 

I went to see John Carter last night.  I was really glad I ignored the negative reviews and went to see it.  I thought it was great, a real old fashioned movie suitable for the whole family, with interesting characters and scenery, awesome special effects, and some nice eye candy.  I was especially impressed because it was one of those rare cases where the movie makers took a book I loved and didn't ruin it.  I felt that they remained pretty close to the book and its tone. 

The Mars books, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, were my original fandom.  I discovered them at age 11 in our local library, a set of dusty old books that no one ever checked out.  The first book was published around 1914, so they were old even in the early 70's, when I found them.  I breezed through them and most of ERB's other classics, like the Tarzan series.  I was a John Carter and Edgar Rice Burroughs fangirl, but I was all alone.  I'm sure there must have been others somewhere, but I never heard about them.

I recommend the series to all those who aren't completely jaded by today's high tech, blood drenched, sex infused culture.  Not that there isn't sex in the books, but it is romantic, off-screen type sex.  The books are pulp fiction at their best, a nice glimpse of American sci-fi history. 

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