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blakes7-d Digest Volume 98 : Issue 100
Today's Topics:
[B7L] Deliverance report (1/2)
[B7L] Deliverance report (2/2)
[B7L] Neutral Zone report (2/2)
Re: [B7L] Back from Deliverance
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 1998 02:51:14 +1000 (EST)
From: kat@welkin.apana.org.au (Kathryn Andersen)
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se (Blake's 7 list)
Subject: [B7L] Deliverance report (1/2)
Message-Id: <m0yLW9z-0008r9C@welkin.apana.org.au>
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Deliverance 1998
27th-29th March 1998
reported by Kathryn Andersen
(part 1)
Friday 27th March
The trip up from Dorset to Stoke-on-Trent was spent singing songs,
then later listening to filk tapes. When we got into Stoke around 8pm,
we overshot a few times, but eventually found the hotel. Then it was
mega-stress, as we needed to sort out, ASAP, all at once, the con
rego, the hotel rego, finding out *where* the dealers room was, where
our rooms were, how to get the stuff there, getting back to Richard in
the car, unloading all the stuff in the trailer and taking it to three
different places. This was particularly stressful for those who were
waiting and didn't know what was going on. But we got it sorted out
eventually.
I stayed in the room a bit to sort out what was in the con pack, then
we went in search of the pub quiz (rather unsure *which* particular
bar it was being held in) and bumped into a few familiar names along
the way. Calle is tall(*), with long blond hair and the expected
accent. I saw Russ Massey as well, plus such non-new faces as Nicole
Petty, Sarah Thompson and Mary O'Connor, whom I had met in the USA.
The pub quiz was noisy and unserious, particularly when, halfway
through the questions, a Servalan-in-drag took over the proceedings.
(This was David Walsh, whom we would see more of later on in the
weekend.)
When that finished, Mary & Judith & I departed in search of somewhere
quieter, preferably the fan room where the filking was supposed to be.
We found the room dark and deserted, so we turned on the lights, and
did what we came there for, which wasn't to filk, but to confer about
fancy-dress entries. We decided on three (one of which we had already
done at MediaWest) and worked on them. Judith and I were running
through Song Of Rebellion(**) -- me, as Avon, singing it increasingly
sarcastically as it goes on, with Judith as Blake being oblivious at
first, and then increasingly annoyed; with plans for stooges in the
audience to leap up and die at the lines "You tell it to the troopers,
as they shoot your followers dead." Anyway, I was singing this, and
the noise attracted people thinking that filking was going on (well,
it *was* a filk, wasn't it?) so after that we did actually do filking.
I went to bed only shortly after midnight. I got less sleep at this
con than I did at Neutral Zone, which probably contributed to the
14-hour slumber that I had when I returned home, to Australia, despite
the sleep I got on the flight.
(*) Everyone is tall compared to me - except Linda.
(**) Full text on my WorkStorm web-page, in Jenny Hayward's section.
http:://connexus.apana.org.au/~kat/works/works.htm
I already had memorised it before the con. Well, it was short.
Saturday 28th March
Our plan was to take a few remaining things to the dealers room, then
have breakfast, then take things to the art room. We did not. Ops
were not ready with the keys, so we had breakfast first. We also
asked about the fancy dress entry, but nobody had any forms, and we
had other questions, but nobody knew any answers. However somebody
did know *who* was supposed to know, so she wrote down our questions
with a promise to ask them as soon as she could track down said
person. When we got to the dealers room after breakfast, she tracked
us down with the forms, but without the answers. Then I went and got
my entries for the art show, went to ops, waited for the key. Then
they told me it was now open, so I went up. The steward for the room
was there, but I then had to wait for the organiser. In the meantime
I arranged my pictures on a table. The best work that was already in
the room was a computer-art composite of the Liberator orbiting around
a red planet with a blue ring-system. It was stunning.
Then the lady whom we had commissioned with the questions arrived in
the room, having been told that the fancy-dress organiser was to be
found there. We told her that he was not here, and then in walked the
person we were all seeking. It turns out that he was in charge of
both the fancy dress, and of setting up the art show. So questions
were clarified, and he asked me to move my art because the table I'd
chosen was needed for the models because it was the only one near a
power point. He gave me forms to fill out for my art. Yes, he did
have the entry forms, but the same information had to be filled out
again for the bidding/display form to be put next to the art itself.
The same kind of thing happened for the fancy dress later on - even
though we'd already filled out entry forms, we had to give the same
information again on the order sheets. Ruddy inefficient. With the
fancy dress it was understandable, but the art show had *required* you
to have your entry forms in by the 28th of February! They had all
that information already - what were they doing with it all that time,
eh?
Then it was the opening ceremony. We had to queue to get in. They
had a good, dramatic music clip - not a song, just music, but very
well edited. The guests came on and were welcomed. Just before it
started, I spotted Annie, and greeted her with a hug. The ironical
news of the day - it was she who had won Data's head in the Neutral
Zone raffle. One of the last people on earth who would want it, and
she won it. Said head was later donated to Redemption.
Then I hit the Horizon shop and the dealers room, for zines and
photos. Then I went up to my room and sorted through my purchases.
At 11:30 I went up to where the autographs were going to be, and a
queue was already forming. I stood in line with Mary and chatted...
for a long long time. The previous panel ran overtime - of course.
(Why am I not surprised?) We eventually got into the room and were
sat in seats, and waited even longer. The order of the guests on the
table was, I think, Brian Lighthill, Jaqueline Pearce, Steven Grief,
David Jackson, Peter Tuddenham and Gareth Thomas.
The line wasn't moving fast, but each guest did seem to be chatting a
bit, but some theoreticians had declared that the slowness of the line
must be due to the garrulity of Gareth Thomas. I had decided that,
since we were limited to two things per guest, that I would get them
all to sign my Deliverance "souvenir brochure" (what a ghastly name -
makes it sound like a commercial enterprise), except Jacqueline,
because I wanted her to sign a photo and my copy of The Totally
Imaginary Cheeseboard (which had already been signed at previous cons
by Paul, Michael, Janet and Gareth). When she signed it, she
automatically passed it on to the next guest, and I had to retrieve it
with the explanation that I wasn't getting anyone to sign it who
hadn't actually appeared in it.
Now, Mary was behind me, getting some things signed for Judith as well
as herself, because Judith was exactly at that time on Stewards duty.
So the following happened in rapid succession. Steven Grief spotted
the email address that I had written on my badge, and then revealed
that he himself was on the net, and liked getting friendly email, and
that it was a bit of a let down if you logged in and there was no
email, and I said that there was no danger of *that* if one was on a
mailing list. Then Mary came along and asked him to sign her booklet,
then Judith's booklet, explained that it was Judith Proctor, and he
recognised her name because he'd seen her web site! Small world. Good
site.
It was 1:30pm by the time we got out. Mary and I went to the main
hall because we thought the blooper reel was being shown there, but
we'd missed it, the hall was practically deserted. But we sat down
anyway near the front (a) just in case and (b) because we wanted to
sit down *somewhere*. It turned out to be a good decision, because
the next panel there at 2pm not only had Gareth Thomas, David Jackson
and Peter Tuddenham, but the newly-arrived Sally Knyvette, and we were
in a very good spot.
The guests unfortunately had spotlights on them while the rest of the
hall was dim, which meant that they couldn't see who was asking the
questions, something that put a strain on them, and I think
contributed to a less relaxed atmosphere. Unfortunately this practice
was continued all through the con, despite hints that it would be
nicer not to. I wonder why they set it up that way?
A young boy asked why Cally was always being taken over by aliens, and
Gareth ended up trying to explain what telepathy was, and David
revealed his love and knowledge of SF by recommending _The Demolished
Man_ for anyone who was interested in telepathy. When a later
question asked the panel what they thought of SF, Gareth said it gave
you more scope because it was boundless, and David revealed his
knowledge again by mentioning _Tiger Tiger_ (aka _The Stars My
Destination_) another Alfred Bester novel, and he commented that
compared to written SF, TV SF seems so old-fashioned, Babylon 5 being
a notable exception. I think what he meant was that TV SF is decades
behind written SF - which is very true. Sally confessed that she
didn't know anything about SF, Blake's 7 being her only contact with
it. Peter likewise.
Other questions were "Did you dream you would be doing this 20 years
later?" (Answer: "No."). "What was Gan like before the Limiter?"
Answer: a family man, a farmer, with a wife and kids, who just lost it
when she was murdered, laid about with a plow, got the Limiter in his
brain, had to do a Bhuddist calm in order for it not to kick in.
"Calm, reasonable, boring," he said with a smile. "Was Blake lying
when he said Jenna was dead?" Answer from Sally: "Yes - she's still
out there in the galaxy." They had a bit of a discussion of the
limitations of the series and around the series which resulted in
characters like Jenna and Cally to be underused. They also told us
tales of all their acting debuts.
It was after three when it ended. Ran around, got changed from my
Barbarian (sorry, indiginous inhabitant of the planet Goth) costume to
my Avon costume to be ready for the fancy dress. 4pm was the fancy
dress rehersal. Unfortunately they had done the programme so that it
was impossible for there to be an actual run-through in the main hall,
because it was being used all the way up to the time of setup.
5pm: Gareth Thomas and Steven Greif workshop. We lined up beforehand,
and it started late because the Mastermind ended late. It was a
double session in more ways than one. Many good things were said
about acting, what it was and what it wasn't, questions answered and
anecdotes told, and the intent to get some participation on our part,
but unfortunately it only happened the once; it got rather
side-tracked by all the questions and answers. But it was good
anyway. I learned a number of things I didn't know before, for
example, the techical meaning of "upstage" - going up-stage from
someone you are dialoguing with draws the audience attention to you,
and forces the other fellow to turn his back on the audience. Later
on, one of the hotel staff came in and put a jug of water and glasses
on the table, and when he left, Steven smiled ruefully and pointed out
that that was another example of upstaging; the fellow was just doing
his job, but he'd drawn everyone's eyes to him anyway.
The secret of projecting your voice is relaxation and practice.
(Something I kept happily in mind in the fancy dress: even though I
had a microphone, singing needs the vocal chords even more than
speaking does.)
"More truth than real" was someone in the audience's suggestion when
Gareth asked if we could describe acting in four words. He was
impressed with that, but launched into his "real for now" anecdote to
further illuminate the point.
They talked of the differences in the meaning of "acting techniques",
and gave anecdotes about good actors. They were both agreed that the
actor themself has no way of being able to tell whether they are a
good actor or not. Only the audience can tell. Sometimes you fly,
and sometimes you don't.
Judith and I left the workshop early because we were supposed to be
assembling for the fancy dress at 6:30pm. Judith had wanted to stay
ten minutes longer, but I was anxious because one of our acts was
first up. Then when the fancy dress ran late, *really* late, Judith
was kicking herself that we'd left so soon. Hindsight is 20/20. At
least this time, unlike Neutral Zone, we had a pleasant bar area to
wait in, instead of a drafty corridor. But also, unlike Neutral Zone,
they gave us no idea how late it was going to be, and no opportunity
to go away and come back. So I ended up munching a quarter of
Judith's sandwich, and that was all the dinner I got. At least we
used the time well, having several run-throughs, one of which sparked
the idea of Blake marching Avon off at gunpoint at the end of Song of
Rebellion. We were also wise enough to save ourselves seats in the
main hall, (with the co-operation of someone's husband) to sit for the
cabaret which was after the fancy dress. The organisers had not given
it a thought, even though it should have been obvious that fancy-dress
participants wouldn't have the opportunity to find any seats since
they were in the fancy dress! This con had again cabaret seating,
which I *still* think is a bad idea, because there is so many *fewer*
seats, that people are left standing and sitting on the floor - gee, I
wonder what would happen if there were a fire? It was so bad that at
one point the MC had to request some people to move because they were
standing in front of the tech crew and the tech crew couldn't see what
was going on!
As per usual, being in the fancy dress meant that you couldn't see
what the other acts were doing. I had an even worse view than at
Neutral Zone, so I don't have the faintest idea *what* half the acts
were. There were 15 acts including us who went on three times. There
were going to be 16 acts, but #2 dropped out.
Henry Proctor won the under 16's with his Decima. He had the chutzpa
and the act as well as the costume. Dave Walsh won "Best Servalan" -
he was utterly OTT, with more chutzpa than anyone else combined. The
best of show was the Clonemasters, very good costumes and makeup, and
a good act. The standard was very good, though I don't know what the
acts were, and the only ones I managed to take a photo of were the
Clonemasters.
The Avon-Cally-Blake routine of ours that we'd done at MediaWest was
first up. The guests judging it were up on the stage, while the acts
were to take place on the dancefloor below. The spotlights stopped
them from seeing us properly, so we stopped and stood there and waited
while they sorted out and cut the spots and cheered when the house
lights went on - then we had to start our act while already on the
stage. But having done this one before, and having other things (like
singing) to worry about, it wasn't a problem. Judith said of our acts
-- we got a laugh, and that was what we wanted. I think it was a
mistake to have the judges up on the stage, not just because of those
dumb spotlights, but because it meant that they saw the back of the
acts, they couldn't see what the audience saw. Unless of course the
acts played to the judges, in which case the audience couldn't see
what the judges saw. Normally the judges sit at the front of the
audience. I think the reason they were put up on the stage was
because the organisers couldn't bear not to use the stage in *some*
way, after they had decided not to use it for the fancy dress acts
because it could be dangerous for some of the more awkward costumes to
be walking up and down those steps without stumbling - and because the
dance-floor gave more room to manouvre.
Then there was the cabaret. David Walsh did a couple of acts, raunchy
cabaret. Peter Tuddenham did an excellent round of stories. Gareth
Thomas did a reading of "If" (Rudyard Kipling) and another poem.
Steven Greif read out "The Selfish Giant" and a poem. David Jackson
did a brilliant set of music-hall routines and linking anecdotes.
Jacqueline Pearce did an adults-only version of Cinderella. The
punch-line simply would not be *understood* by someone unfamiliar with
erotic concepts. And, no, I don't wish to explain about the melon.
The auction was meant to be after that, but I left because it was
after ten.
(continued in part 2)
--
_--_|\ | Kathryn Andersen <kat@welkin.apana.org.au>
/ \ | http://connexus.apana.org.au/~kat
\_.--.*/ | #include "std/disclaimer.h"
v |
------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere
Maranatha! | -> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 1998 02:52:57 +1000 (EST)
From: kat@welkin.apana.org.au (Kathryn Andersen)
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se (Blake's 7 list)
Subject: [B7L] Deliverance report (2/2)
Message-Id: <m0yLWBd-0008r9C@welkin.apana.org.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Deliverance 1998
27th-29th March 1998
reported by Kathryn Andersen
(part 2)
Sunday 29th March
Daylight savings meant that we didn't get down to breakfast until just
before nine, but as everyone else was in the same boat, it wasn't too
crowded. My brain was mush, so the ordering of the following may be
inaccurate.
I did join the queue for the morning autograph session, but as the
queue was already down the stairs, I didn't have much hope, but I
thought I'd try anyway. Mary was with me. Then when I found out that
the only person there who hadn't been there yesterday was Michael
Keating, I left, since I had seen him at ZenCon II, and though I like
him, and would very enjoy a one-minute chat, it wasn't worth standing
in line for two or three hours. Neutral Zone was much better in that
respect, with their allotted timeslot system, but it is probably true
that *any* system would break down with so many guests and so many
attendees. Mary stayed in the queue, and it turned out later that Jan
and Sally did get there by the time Mary got to the front, but I'm
still glad that I didn't stay.
One of the things that I did instead was do another trawl of the
dealers rooms, lucked out in finding Sheelagh Wells there at one
point, and got her to sign my copy of The Totally Imaginary
Cheeseboard. I also chatted to a few people I knew, and looked at the
Blake's 7 exhibition downstairs, which was good. Particularly of
interest to me were the costumes.
I went to the Terry Nation Tribute & Liars Panel, and Sheelagh got off
the stage when the Liars Panel started because she didn't want to try
to lie. The others there were David Maloney, Gareth Thomas, Michael
Keating - and Joe Nazzaro was asking questions. It was funny. It got
so that Gareth remarked, after answering "Paul Darrow" several times
to questions, that it almost didn't matter what question was asked, he
could answer "Paul Darrow" - wherapon someone immediately called out a
ridiculous question which I can't remember precisely.
To answer "Who was the best/worst actor in Blake's 7?" Gareth answered
"Paul Keating" and Michael made some remark about Australia. (For
those not politically aware, Paul Keating was our Prime Minister
before John Howard.) After that they put on a tribute video, and I
left in search of lunch, having learned a lesson from the day before.
2pm: "The Women of Blake's 7", Jaqueline Pearce, Sally Knyvette and
Jan Chappell. Usual questions, and unusual ones. Someone asked
tongue-in-cheek: "With all this Girl Power, do you think that Servalan
was an inspiration for Scary Spice, and what advice would you give
her?" Answer: "I've never seen them, but if she wants advice, she can
ask me any time!" Jan looked rather tired, which was no surprise, I
don't know exactly when she got to Stoke, but it would have been late.
They all look just as beautiful as ever.
I left after that, to go up to the art room to see that was happening
with the art, and found a room full of people and a dispute going on,
becuase even though the rules about bids on art had been decided upon
ages ago, and put in the art info, that was only sent to people who
inquired about it, and it was not actually written in the art room,
and the people in ops had been misinformed about it, so they gave the
wrong info, so they actually got a committee member (Judith Smith) to
come and sort things out. Another problem was with the reserve
prices: because there was no section to put the reserve prices of
artwork on the display forms, and because one person put their reserve
price intelligently there anyway, the implication was that all the
other art had no reserve price. Which meant that many pieces went for
a lot less than they might have. But at least my being there meant
that I could have a nice chat with the lass who actually bought my one
piece that was for sale.
It turns out that there wasn't actually anyone *in charge* of the Art
Show - the ones who we had thought were in charge had actually only
volunteered to *set it up*. There wasn't a proceedure in place for
picking up the art either, so they made do by saying that I could take
mine, because they recognised me, and sign on the display form that
I'd taken it. All that took a while.
Then I went back down to the main hall and sneaked in to the tail end
of the "Men in Blake's 7" panel, in readiness for the closing
ceremony. The first thing that happened in the closing ceremony was
the raffle-drawing, which felt like it went on forever. Then all the
guests came on stage and were asked what they liked best about the
con, which turned into a stream of thank-yous by the end of the line.
Sally basically said that they were exhausted but had a great time.
Then the usual thank-yous of people involved in the con (though I
can't recall that the Stewards were thanked at all). One disturbing
thing was the way Diane Gies referred to the guests as "my guests" --
excuse me? Was there no-one else involved in this con but her?
Then the guests left, and Matt Irvine gave out the things for
prizewinners, which looked like Federation symbols, but whether they
were badges or trophies was a bit hard to tell. I wanted to find out
who won the Art Show. For the over-16's, it was Robert H. but they
didn't say the title of the work which won, and what was more
surprising, there wasn't a second or third place, or even an
honourable mention. This was annoying, because those of us who
entered in it who didn't do paintings (there was some *fantastic*
colour work there - the Liberator over the planet which I mentioned
before, and a painting all in tones of red, of Travis I and a woman,
titled "Death's Gravedigger" which was just excellent.). Anyway, those
of us who just did black & white work knew that we didn't have a
chance in a million of coming first in competition with colour work,
but we did have some wondering hope of coming second or third, or of
coming first if there had been more than one category - but there
wasn't. So why did we bother? I'm certainly never going to do it
again. Not with this concom anyway, who were such fussbudgets about
the art in the first place.
They set up an autograph session for after the closing ceremony, but
because I stayed and chatted and took photos with people, I was near
the end of the line, but then the line got longer and I was no longer
the end. Jan was really nice after we'd been standing there for ages
-- because she was leaving, she actually went down the line signing
things, rather more efficiently than any of the signings had been for
the whole con. Then she left. I think I was in the queue for 1 1/2
hours, and all I ended up with was Sally's signature on a photo. She
was looking very weary at that time. Sally and Steven were on the
same table, but because I went in the wrong direction, the steward
thought I was trying to join the queue again, but I didn't make a fuss
because I'd already encountered Steven the day before while others
hadn't, so it was better if someone else got the chance, because
Steven and Sally were leaving literally in five minutes for the train
station.
So then I wandered and found a bunch of Space City folk all sitting on
the floor by one wall and had a little chat. Richard turned up,
annoyed, because they had shut the dealers room on him, even though
it was officially supposed to be open until 8pm. The only explanation
that I can think of is that they shut it because Richard was the only
dealer still there - but it still doesn't seem fair, since fen who
might have been planning to go to the dealers room later, wouldn't be
able to.
Then I went upstairs and wrote in my journal, and that would have been
the end of this report - if I hadn't decided to check out the filking
after I'd finished writing. And it was just as well that I did. It
seems that Judith had a surprise planned for Gareth; for a bunch of us
to sing him a filk after the banquet. I walked in on them practicing.
So I joined in, though I only got as far as being able to sing the
chorus. So then we went down, and waited for the banquet to finish
and Gareth to come out. And he did, and we sang it for him in a quiet
corner where we could be heard... and he *did* like it. Then he went
back into the adoring crowd by the bar, and we sat and gibbered in our
corner. Then somebody counted and realized that there were seven of
us! Another example of the underlying connectedness of all things.
Or just coincidence, of course.
Post-Mortem
In summary, I would say that what made Deliverance good was the guests
and the fans, not the organization. "Officious inefficiency" is the
word that springs to mind. One could argue that Deliverance was
doomed from the start, what with so many guests and so many attendees,
that it passed a kind of critical mass after which it is impossible
for things to go right, but there were still things that could have
been reasonably expected to be better organized. The secret of
circumventing Murphy's Law is to anticipate potential problems and
plan for them. Certainly it makes me think twice about attending any
Media convention which has more than four major guests, whoever is
organizing it. On the up-side, it was fantastic to see so many fen
there, to put faces to names (whether I remember them again is another
question). I was astonished by the number of people who came up to me
and declared their pleasure at meeting the "famous" Kathryn Andersen.
Golly! I even had someone take a photo of me as "photographic
evidence" that she'd met me. Gee. I guess that just shows that there
was a large lystator List presence at the con. Anyway, thanks folks.
It's fen that make fandom go around, never forget it.
And the guests. Don't forget the guests.
The best guests are
happy and humble
and pleased to see us.
They come
armed with a quivverful of anecdotes
and a smile
and only the very very few
ever hear
the unheard sigh
"I've got a queue
in the bar,
I must go."
watched them go
the extra hundred miles
plastering smiles
over their exhaustion
after being insulted
by a fan who had as little sleep as sense
and still being polite
to all comers
one, by one, by one.
The best guests
still attend an unconsulted raffle-breakfast
after arriving
at 2am the night before.
They are not autograph machines
They have a life
that we don't know
that went on after
the role that we admire them for
which was just a job
so many years ago.
We buzz around them like bees
on and on and on
hungry for that smile and word
again, again, again, again.
So wearying it all must be
and yet
they still come.
-- Kathryn Andersen
- ------------------------------
Note: the full text of this report, with accompanying photos, is on my
geocities web page:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/4246
This one has less photos than the Neutral Zone report, alas.
Far too many pictures of the backs of people's heads.
Kathryn Andersen
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Oh man this isn't happening - it only thinks it's happening."
-- Flynn (Tron)
--
_--_|\ | Kathryn Andersen <kat@welkin.apana.org.au>
/ \ | http://connexus.apana.org.au/~kat
\_.--.*/ | #include "std/disclaimer.h"
v |
------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere
Maranatha! | -> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 1998 02:50:28 +1000 (EST)
From: kat@welkin.apana.org.au (Kathryn Andersen)
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se (Blake's 7 list)
Subject: [B7L] Neutral Zone report (2/2)
Message-Id: <m0yLW9E-0008r9C@welkin.apana.org.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Neutral Zone (part 2)
reported by Kathryn Andersen
Saturday 21st March
Costume of the day: Barbarian with Staff. This was the first time I'd
taken my new collapsable staff to a con. It was made for me in three
sections which screw together, by my brother-in-law, from maple, cut
to make an octagon shape (rather than the traditional circular staff).
This was done to make a staff worthy of the
dragon-claw-and-optic-crystal-ball staff-top which I'd bought at
MediaWest last year. The finishing touch was an attachment of wild
rabbit fur at the top, forming a stylistic bridge between the ornate
claw and the elegant simplicity of the staff. The talents of three
artisans went into it, and I am very pleased with it. The only
problem is, when sitting down for a session, one either has to hold it
up, which is awkward, or lie it on the floor, which is also awkward.
I bumped into Judith and Val on their way down to breakfast, so I came
down and chatted with them while they ate. We kept chatting in the
dealers room, then I went to Tucker Smallwood's talk and discovered
to my distress that my camera batteries were flat and I couldn't take
any photos! But it was an excellent Q&A, ranging from Goodbye Charlie
(Millennium), Home (X-Files), Ross (S:AAB), Vietnam, the Blues, being
given the wrong sword on the opening night of Julius Ceasar, the
really positive reaction of Armed Forces personel to S:AAB, the
universitality of war, why he celebrates two birthdays (one was his
birth, Feb 22nd, the other was a recovery from death, re-birth, in the
Vietnam war). How he felt that Ross was very much like him, like he
would be in that position, which made it a very easy and fulfilling
role to play, because he knew where he was centred, and he could
concentrate on the nuances. And he played "I'll be home for
Christmas" on the guitar for us, and talked about the Blues CD he
performed on.
Had a nice natter with Annie, Linda, Fiona and Helen in a corner of
the bar area, then went with Val to the charity auction part 1, and
wished I hadn't, because it went on and on full of Trek stuff, and it
was impossible to leave.
The next event of note was James Morrison's Q&A session, after lunch.
I wish I had had a tape. He found McQueen his most challenging role,
learned a lot, stretched his craft, and found a bit of character
bleed. The S:AAB cast felt unapreciated, hated to see S:AAB cancelled.
His nickname on the set was "The Cheerless Cherub". He would do
McQueen again in a shot, but he doesn't expect it to happen. If he
could work with anyone, he would like to work with Anthony Hopkins. In
an ideal world, he prefers theatre, because of the immediate
interaction with the audience, but good TV is better than horrible
theatre. He auctioned off his copy of the script of the Millenium
episode he was in, for £260, for the convention charity (hearing dogs
for the deaf).
He doesn't believe in Method acting, it's "let's pretend",
that's all. His wife's advice on auditioning for parts requiring
intensity: "Do nothing." That way he would be just intense enough.
He likes the blues, (as does Tucker Smallwood) but McQueen was shown
as liking Beethoven because it would be rather silly having arguments
about whether Ross or McQueen should be allowed to like the Blues.
James, however, was allowed to pick McQueen's first names (Tyrus
Cassius).
"I've read some of the fan fiction - it was very... imaginative."
(audience reaction)
"No, I didn't mean *that* stuff! I read one, Ross and McQueen - it was
*bad*! It's called 'slash' isn't it?"
He didn't seem *shocked* about slash, which isn't surprising really,
considering the kind of subjects he is willing to tackle in his
writing, "Nude Descending" for example, and apparently his next
project is to write a play about rape and incest, for charity relating
to support victims of same. He isn't interested in writing fanfic
himself. If there had been a second season, he would liked to have
written a how-McQueen-copes script, but that's all. He was never into
SF, but is more interested now. Joel had given him a copy of Lord
Foul's Bane, saying "You should play this part!" Mentioned Ira
Levin as having written an SF story he'd been very impressed with,
but I thought Ira Levin would never have written SF, and I can't
remember the title he mentioned.
Someone asked him if he could still juggle (having been a clown) and
he said yes. So the person challenged him to prove it, and tossed him
the balls to do so! And he did! Every time he stood up in the session,
the camera flashes went crazy, particularly when he first came on (he
said then that he would sit down when he was completely blind).
The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting with various people, and
doing a bit of filking with Judith, and at some point I looked at
Val's entries in the art show; some Avons and a Morgan and the cover
of the Morgan zine. I had dinner in the restaurant, and chatted with
two con-going lasses at the next table.
Around eight o'clock, we went to the main hall, where they were
setting up for the fancy dress. We arranged with the M.C. about our
entry, and went through it by ourselves a couple of times. We sat
around and chatted while waiting for them to organise themselves, and
when they had, it was decreed that Judith, Julie and I were to go
first. Then we were all lined up in the hallway, a cold concrete
hallway by the kitchens, which went in both directions, up and down
from the door we were to go in. The idea was to line up on the
"down" side, come out and do our bit, come back in and line up on
the "up" side, wait, and then come out in order for a quick walk-on,
go out again, and await the judges' decision.
But the Guest judges were late because the autograph session was
running late, so we were told to go off and reassemble at five to ten
(the fancy dress was originally going to start at 9:30). So we
escaped, and then we came back and waited in the hall. James Morrison
was the first to arrive, so he was waiting too, in his favourite
pullover and jeans. He walked up and down the other end of the
hallway, taking an occassional swig from the bottle he was carrying.
Then Gareth Thomas arrived, and he, rather than wait, went out to the
bar. Then finally Tucker Smallwood arrived, and the ball started
rolling.
We had some malfunctioning microphone problems, mine was hardly
working, and at one point the fellow doing the Ode To Spot had to do a
little dance of microphone exchange to get one that worked.
The winners were:
#1) Ode To Spot (Data uniform, makeup, toy cat, and word-perfect rendition
of Data's Ode To Spot.)
#2) The House of Duress, which were a Londo, a Minbari, a Ladira, who
did a little dance number to The Rivers of Babylon.
#3) Space, A Bear, and Beyond: one of the tech crew in S:AAB dress,
with a teddy bear in full S:AAB dress.
First Commendation: 007 of Borg. (I shall say no more)
Second Commendation: The Alternative Angry Angel - white flight-suit,
black chunky boots, angel wings, gold tinsel halo, and a baseball bat.
The other entries were:
- Judith, Julie and me in The Origami Tiara. Only the Blake's 7 fans
seemed to get the joke.
- a lovely Centauri lady in purple
- Dixon Hill and ladies
- Xena
- a swashbuckler
- Delenna and the Shadows (black leather and water pistol)
- a Man In Black
and one more that I can't remember.
There was a "floor show" (ostensibly to give the judges time to
deliberate) "The Real Dabbo Girls" who did a dance to "My Guy" who
turned out to be a two-timing Captain Kirk. I didn't catch all of it,
since we were peering though the door in order to see. After all the
announcements including the announcements of the winners and bringing
us all back out, the comperes did a silly semi-striptease, but someone
came out of the audience and did a little more first, rather to the
comperes' surprise. Then people stood around taking photos of the
fancy dress entries, and presumably the disco started after that, but
I went to bed.
Sunday 22nd March
Due to some remnants of jetlag, I was the third person at the hotel
restaurant for breakfast. The second person was Caroline, whom I'd met
on Thursday. She said, "Did you hear what happened?"
I replied, assuming that whatever it was, it had happened overnight,
"No, I was asleep."
She said that someone had set off the sprinklers in the second
upstairs bar, and all the video rooms and the main hall were shut down
because of the water. The art room was okay, video 3 was okay, but
since you had to get to them past the other two, everything was off,
at that point. It was so bad that the roof tiles in video 1 came down!
Apparently, I learned later, there had been a (mundane) stag party on
in the second bar, and the idiots had thrown darts at the sprinkler
system, and it burst. Fortunately, because of the con, and the con
security, the whole thing was detected much sooner than it might have
been otherwise. So the hotel was very happy with the con people. They
were pretty well organised, because by the time it was about 10,
things were back on track, all the strands were running, they'd just
moved the video 1 program into another room.
We definitely were the first in for breakfast - when I went up for my
cereal, there was no hot food out, but it was by the time I wanted it,
except for my toast, which I didn't get until after I'd eaten my
egg. Then, the great discovery... Someone at the table next to me,
when asked the standard question by the waitress, "Tea or coffee?",
asked, "Do you have hot chocolate?" When the waitress answered
"yes", about three other voices chorused (including me) "Hot
chocolate?" "You mean we could have had hot chocolate all this
time?" So naturally I ordered some hot chocolate.
When I had finished eating, I got up to leave, and started out, when,
wonder of wonders, I saw James Morrison walking to a table. I had been
kicking myself last night because I didn't try to talk to him to give
him the answer to his question about the Enarrare' 10 cover, so I
siezed the opportunity which was before me. I told him, as Annie had
told me, that the photo came from a magazine article (Annie had
sacrificed the magazine for it) He said, "So it doesn't really exist."
Then I passed on Annie's offer of a copy of the zine, and he said he'd
be delighted, and I said we'd give it to him when we could catch him
later, and he said he'd like to tell Annie himself how good he thought
it was, and I said "You do that! I think it's wonderful." Then I
excused myself and spent the next half-an-hour on cloud nine.
Of course I went off immediately and told Annie & Linda the news, and
nattered with them until they went down to breakfast, wherapon I went
down to the ground floor and nattered to Judith where she was on door
duty. Judith was trying to think of good questions to ask Joe,
Sheelagh and Gareth. Then we went into the dealers room for a bit, and
I spent more money than I probably should have.
Then it was Gareth, Sheelagh and Joe, a fun rambling thing talking
about acting, the Together Again tapes, makeup, Neverwhere, Morgan's
Boy, cult TV...
Then we escaped from the charity auction part 2 before it started,
spent a little time in the dealers room, and then found out that James
was signing autographs in the bar area, so I grabbed Annie and Linda
and we joined the queue, and they gave him the Enarrare' and got a
couple more things signed, and talked a little of jetlag. (Seems both
they and James were still suffering from 2am wakings.)
We went upstairs for a cuppa, then I dashed downstairs for the James
Morrison & Tucker Smallwood session, but the auction was still going,
running late, and James and Tucker were still signing things, and a
couple of people were getting their pictures taken with the guests, so
I timidly went up and got mine taken, so if it doesn't come out I
will be *very* unhappy.
Then the auction finally did finish, and James and Tucker had their
Q&A session. Unfortunately, there was no microphone for the questions,
so one had to deduce the questions from the answers. Some things were
repeated from yesterday, and many I don't remember. One good one was,
"What is the best thing, the best moments about what you do?" Tucker
said, the moments when an understanding of the character, an
understanding of himself, that he didn't have before, crystalizes.
James said, "You know, how it is, when a mother lifts a car to save
her child, that extraordinary strength that sometimes happens -
that's poetry. And those moments of poetry - when you reach beyond
your potential, completely selfless..." and Tucker added, "When
you're in the groove..". Well, you had to be there.
A lot more was said, but nothing so profound. Silly fun things were
said too. Someone asked about blue-screen work, and Tucker said that
it didn't really worry him because the important thing was the
interaction with the other actors, and James said that when you're
looking at blue-screen where, say, it is supposed to be a ship leaving
the Saratoga, then you just look and think about what you are supposed
to be doing - if you are to be sad that the ship is leaving, then you
look sad, if you're supposed to be happy they're leaving, you look
happy. Then Tucker pointed out that things can get complicated when
you have a whole roomful of people, all supposed to be looking at the
same imaginary thing, they don't always get it in unison. (Visions of
B7 Scorpio bloopers went though my head at this point, times when they
didn't all swerve in the same direction.)
Then I dashed upstairs to watch a Highlander video, and then basically
wandered around in and out of the dealers room and chatted with people
(and wrote in my journal) until the closing ceremony.
My camera was busy, but I expect it will be mostly the back of
people's heads. There was the raffle drawing, but none of the prizes
were all that interesting, and the first two winning ticket-holders
weren't even there! The Hearing Dog charity *had* raised enough for a
dog, so that was good. A revelation - no wonder there was so much Trek
in a con with no Trek guests - it was organized by a Trek club. They
gave out certificates for the winners of various competitions,
including the fancy dress. Val won second prize in the art show for
her "Morgan" cover. Maike (she's a German fan, I think) won first
prize for her painting of McQueen, and the certificate was handed to
her by James, of course. There was much thanks and
we-couldn't-have-done-it-without-X, and much applause. Diana was given
gifts and flowers.
And then it was officially over, though the "chill-down" party would
go on until late. But cons aren't *really* over until you go home,
are they? Except that mostly what happened after that was fascinating
conversations with fellow fen, of which one can either not remember,
or not repeat, their contents. I mean, you don't really want to know
the discussion between Val and I as to what actor we would rather have
dinner with, or gossip from Fiona about local fen, or, indeed, what
kind of pizza we ate for tea.
Monday 23rd March
It is a demonstration of the perversity of life, that while I was
wishing and hoping and dreaming of a repeat of yesterday's breakfast
encounter with James Morrison, what did happen was that instead, I saw
Steven Furst. So I smiled and waved, but again said nothing. I'm not
into B5 any more.
However, I did catch a glimpse of James as I was sitting on the stairs
after I checked out, as he walked in from outside in his overcoat,
carrying a take-away cup of coffee, and dissappeared into the lift. My
last glimpse, so I thought. I expressed a wish to Val and Judith as we
stood there with our cases, waiting for the taxi to take us to the
station, that I could at least say goodbye and wish him well, and
muttering that it would never happen. So when he came out of the lift
with a bag, Val dared me to go over and do just that. So I did. It
is a further irony of life that he thought I was Maike, the lass
who'd done the painting. So I explained that I wasn't, and wished
him well anyway. It was rather flattering, really, when you think
about it. So *that* was my last glimpse of James Morrison in the
flesh.
But the convention was almost not really over, because we carried it
with us, since there was a bunch of us catching the train from
Newcastle, and we all sat together in the train and talked about
everything from Xena, to story arcs, to B5, to letting characters die,
to sanitized plots, to realism, to S:AAB, to fannish olympics ideas,
to the Media and fandom, to self-identification of groups, to
abortion, to green activists, to convention tech crews, to
conventions-I-have-known, and so on and so forth. But eventually the
party broke up, and people went their separate ways.
Next up, Deliverance.
Note: the full text of this report, with accompanying photos, is on my
geocities web page:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/4246
--
_--_|\ | Kathryn Andersen <kat@welkin.apana.org.au>
/ \ | http://connexus.apana.org.au/~kat
\_.--.*/ | #include "std/disclaimer.h"
v |
------------| Melbourne -> Victoria -> Australia -> Southern Hemisphere
Maranatha! | -> Earth -> Sol -> Milky Way Galaxy -> Universe
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 1998 10:33:45 +0100
From: Julia Jones <Julia.lysator@jajones.demon.co.uk>
To: blakes7@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: [B7L] Back from Deliverance
Message-ID: <YCN2xDA55fJ1Ew3k@jajones.demon.co.uk>
In message <199804040226.CAA18717@rock103.genie.net>,
s.thompson8@genie.geis.com writes
>... and catching up on e-mail. It's wonderful to have faces and voices to
>attach to so many of the names here! I now hear Iain's Scottish accent when
>I read his posts, and I know just what expression Julia has when she's
>drooling over Avon.
>
And if you need to be reminded, you can always look at the inside cover
of _The Logic of Empire_.
Odd thing, that. Several people at the con thought that picture looked
like me, in at least one case to the extent of assuming I was the model.
Yet I showed it to a couple of people at work earlier this week, and
they couldn't see it at all.
--
Julia Jones
"Don't philosophise with me, you electronic moron!"
The Turing test - as interpreted by Kerr Avon.
--------------------------------
End of blakes7-d Digest V98 Issue #100
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