Previous ramblings

Can be found on Livejournal. Most of my output is unlocked.

http://xenaclone.livejournal.com/

Includes stories, fan fiction and other items.

Piccies from Dragon Con 2009

http://tinyurl.com/qfdv2o

Dragon Con 2009 #4

Monday

I went on the historic trolley tour in the morning. It took two hours and went round a fair slice of Atlanta. Definitely worth doing once if you're ever in town.

Bonita [again!]

After I got back, I collected my photo shoot picture of me with Bonita and went over to the Hilton hotel to show her. We had a good time chatting, she signed the picture. Then I took a huge speculation; I asked John Billingsly to sign my Chuck comic. I know he hasn't been in it yet; it's just wild mad guesswork on my part :-).

I must have spent nearly half an hour there; talking to either Bonita, John or the other fans who came to the table. I told her my parents had been in the [UK] RAF. I sent my love to the cast of 'Chuck'. We talked a bit about T1 and the Subway breakout. A US Army veteran turned up and he gave me a fairly comprehensive guide to the meaning of General Beckman's ribbons; at least the ones he recognised. So here it is!

Air Force Cross; Air Force Distinguished Service Medal; DOP Distinguished Service; Distinguished Flying Cross; Bronze Star with valor Device; Meritorious Service Medal; National Defense 3 campaign stars; American Expeditionary Force; Humanitarian Assistance; Saudi liberation of Kuwait; Joint Service Commendation Medal; Joint Service Achievement Medal

I trawled around a couple of the dealers' rooms, but didn't buy anything. Then that was about that; a couple more panels and Dragon Con was finished for another year.

Dragon Con 2009 #3

Sunday photo shoot

After the Chuck panel, I finally had my photo shoot with Bonita. This has been postponed from Friday. There were a handful of us at the shoot; three 'Buy More' workers and myself in Wienerlicious gear. We got our pictures taken with Bonita and moved on.

Benihana

A little explanation. When Morgan on 'Chuck' declared his desire to learn how to be a Benihana chef, my reaction was, "A what now?" So I went and looked up the term on the internet. Having thereby achieved some kind of understanding, I was reasonably satisfied. Then I saw that there was a Benihana restaurant right on the doorstep of Dragon Con. Having some time on my hands on the Sunday night, off I went to the restaurant.

For the uninitiated, there were up to eight of us sitting around a solid rectangular table. This table had a large hot plate sunk about half an inch deep into the surface. After we'd ordered, we received delicious hot, clear soup and a small salad in a bowl plus two small bowls of dipping sauce.

Then the chef turned up and started by juggling a number of knives in front of us. Then he poured oil onto the surface and began cooking. Length-wise sliced courgettes, onions, steak, chicken, mushrooms, a huge pile of freshly prepared special fried rice [complete with eggs broken onto the hot plate], shellfish. To say we got a feast is an understatement! And everything was utterly delicious.

Pictures here:-
http://tinyurl.com/m5h6xt

Sunday evening continued with me being on a panel as part of the Brit Track about 'BEING HUMAN'. I took some pictures of the location pink house in Totterdown, Bristol. We discussed several episodes and themes in the first season. I was able to report that season 2 was now filming in Bristol.

I concluded Sunday by singing some filk and going to the Pirate party!

Dragon Con 2009 #2

Saturday

Parade

I went out after breakfast and made my way to Woodruff Park. This year I decided to be Silk Spectre II from 'Watchmen', mostly based on the film version of the character. In my allocated section there were quite a few Supermen and Batmen [Batmans?] plus associated characters. I think there were two more ladies dressed like me plus one Rorshach. I said hello to the assembled Browncoats and Sid. The General Lee car raised a lot of enthusiastic interest! There was a huge BSG group who were loudly chanting, 'So say we all!'. They even had three people dressed as metal Cylons [i.e. giant chrome toasters, LOL]. The Parade went very well and I got back to my hotel room just in time to see the significant Star Wars party taking up the rear. They even had a couple of pod racers [on wheels!]

Lavapalooza

This was a Polynesian-themed charity function in the Hilton hotel run by Trader Vics. My $25 bought me vouchers for four items. I traded one in pretty quickly for a Mai Tai [hic!]. There was a band on stage playing up-beat Hawaiian guitar numbers, but then they did a creditable cover of the Shadows 'Wonderful Land'. Delicious culture clash! I came back to the Lavapalooza later after doing some other things and had some food and a beer. Very good value for money!

Watchmen meetup

Quite a good number of us turned up in costume; three or four Comedians, one each of Mothman and Ozymandias, several Silk Spectre I and II [including me in the latter group], one Rorschach, a couple of Silhouettes and one Smiley badge [complete with 'blood' stain].

8:30 PM Whedon Universe Costume Contest
I decided to bring out 'Vera' for public consumption! However the excellent one woman Jayne hat was back along with a couple of very good Kaylees in 'wedding cake dresses', plus large numbers of Mals, Jaynes and Rivers!
SHINDIG!

Just like last year, this was incredibly popular. All the seats were taken and the entire central area of the room was packed with people; rather like a huge mosh pit! More chairs or a bigger room next year, please! Yet again the bar was tiny. I'd anticipated this and smuggled in a couple of beers bought in the nearby liquor store. Both Emerald Rose and the Bedlam Bards played well, but then the music stopped. This was a shame. It wouldn't have taken much to wire a CD player and/or an iPod into the speakers for more [recorded] dancing music to have been played. I could have brought my Walkman; it was full of music for the long journey and has a significant selection of assorted dance tunes. Heck, I had my Firefly filks in my bag; I could have sung them a capella. So, at about 1 a.m., the party seemed to grind to a halt and people drifted away, which was disappointing.

Sunday

Browncoats:Redemption

The trailer we'd all been waiting for! It's now out on the web; so please check it out. We also had a good six minutes of video of Sonny Rhodes playing slide guitar exclusively for the film. A number of the cast and creative team were there, so I had my promotional postcard signed by all of them. It'll be going in a frame soon!

2:30 pm Chuck - A glimpse within Intersect (GP) Sheraton - Capital

Aren't you glad I'm in charge of national security?
This was a delicious and hysterical hour of Bonita on stage 'assisted' [and heckled!] by her hubby John Billingsly! She commented that before this, she's been the one doing the heckling! According to both of them, playing 'the alien doctor and the general' is their favourite game! [TMI?!!?]
The entire cast wished to convey their thanks at helping save the show. [Some of us are Adam fans from 'Firefly' days. We know the countryside!]. John is 'now working for Subway' [humour!]. Bonita promised to pack several of the cast [including Zach] into her suitcase next year! Her acting inspiration for the General is Dame Judi Dench. She can't get all her bobby pins out on set, so she takes a shower when she gets home.

Yvonne has to wear 5” heels and does her own stunts!
Yes, Bonita is wearing the bottom half of her uniform under the desk!
Adam is crazy about guns [I think we'd noticed....!!] ; playing with them and flipping them on set!
Bonita would like Beckman to get a promotion to 2 or 3 star general, please!
Ann Dunworthy was apparent ly the first female 4 star general. One of the other female generals had a hairdo just like Beckman's>!!
Bonita 'loves being able to play a woman in power'. John is happy with this arrangement as well :-). It was about here that John recalled his deathless line from 'True Blood'. It's NSFW and distinctly adults only!!!
Chuck isn't entirely in control of his new powers [thought not...]
Some reference to [www.thetwocents.com] which is a podcast.
There is a returning guest from Season 1 [I think we knew that], plus Brandon Routh.
Audience interaction with representatives of the 'Buy More 435 from Tallahassee'!
'Do you have a retail expert on the show?' [Because it's so well done!]
'Then I try to do them all at once and it ends up hurting' [Probably best not to ask...!!!]
Origins of Fulcrum? Well, the Ring is a much bigger enemy. [Oooh, tease!]
'Beyond the Government, beyond the United Nations...' It's Burbank Torchwood!!
Bonita had problems fitting on a screen with Tony Todd. He's 6ft 5ins and she's 5ft 3! She sat on a pile of telephone directories through a lot of season 1!
Beckman can pop up everywhere!
Ben and Casey [not Adam!] developed the Castle so that the cast can see each other.
Bonita used to be a teacher of middle and high school.
[Young lad] Why is Chuck on Monday? [Gets standing ovation!]
Bonita is roughly the same age as Adam.
It's gift time. John, “It's ticking!!” [Turns out to be a non-ticking NSA mug]. Bonita and John indulge in a lot of comic business 'discovering' that the mug will hold water.
John, “Where are the instructions?” Gift giver, “On the bottom!” John = Big grin!!
Beckman will come out from behind her desk again, be somewhere foreign and have a bullhorn!
She'd like to learn to use a bull-whip [John approved of this!].
Bonita described how her first experience on Chuck without the desk was somewhat physically hampered by her having long slacks and shoes that were too large. The slacks kept getting caught up inside the shoes and made her judder to a halt.
Beckman's task now is to make sure Chuck has the discipline to learn new skills he needs.
Zach still has the beard he grew in the hiatus.
John says Bonita has mad kung fu skills! She's just played a sword fighting vampire on Bob Chapin's webisode series.
'Someone has to keep Casey under control'. [ME! ME! WHERE DO I APPLY?!!?]
We are going to see a lot more of the Buy More.
Bonita suggested that it would be funny if Bekman was found at her desk with her legs up and drinking gin! Or the desk is unoccupied and a toilet flush is heard.
**
Throughout the talk, the microphone proved somewhat squeaky and even squealed a few times, but both Bonita and John turned the occurrences into comedy gold moments!

Dragon Con 2009 #1

Thursday

The day started very early with a short flight to Charles de Gaul airport in Paris, followed by a nine hour flight to the States. I watched a couple of films and dozed a bit after lunch. Eventually I landed at Atlanta airport at 2 p.m. local time. Then followed the task of getting through customs and immigration. At least this year, it only took an hour and a half to get to the Marta station; a distinct improvement on two and a half last year. I reached the station for the hotels and made my way to the registration queue at the Sheraton. Sadly the room they'd picked lacked sufficient air conditioning and had a long queue. On the plus side, I had a battery operated fan. This proved worth its weight in gold as I slowly made my way to get my ticket and pocket programme. At last, over two hours later, I was through and on my way to the Hyatt. Finally I contacted my roomie, Zan, got my key and settled in. As I recall, they decided to go out to dinner - either separately or together - without me. So I carried on making myself comfortable.

I got my stuff sorted, then headed out for some food [although I wasn't feeling that hungry] and made my way to the Whedonverse track room to rehearse the pivotal Sweet/Dawn dance from 'Buffy Horror Picture show'. My memory is that I bumped into Sid on the way and we said hello, sharing a hug and a kiss. The rehearsal went on till about 10 p.m. at which time my internal clock called 'bed!' and so that's where I went.

Friday

Today was 'get as many autographs sorted as possible' day! I knew from last year that Saturday would be crazy, so I was going to do my best to avoid going into the walk of fame on that day. As I wasn't prepared to pony up $$$ for autographs from Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Patrick Stewart or Kate Mulgrew [I work on a fairly tight budget!], I kept away from the queues for their special dedicated signing room.

Bonita Fredericy [General Beckman]

She was sitting to the left of the main entry door alongside her hubby John Billingsly. I took a moment to recognise her, because she had her hair down [it just touches her shoulders] and she was smiling, with her eyes dancing. Quite different from the stern Beckman persona! I saluted her and she gave me one back. I commented on how different she looks with her hair down. She laughed and said it takes one and a half hours to get her hair a la Beckman!

I asked how her scenes were shot and whether she interacts with the other actors in real time. In season 1 her scenes [with Tony Todd, usually] were recorded separately with a non-actor delivering the feed lines. This wasn't entirely satisfactory for either her or the others. Now they rig something up so that the other actors can see her on a monitor and she has one on her desk plus an earpiece in her ear. She added that Adam is very naughty and makes her laugh [somehow that does not surprise me and I said so!].

Due to spending time getting most of the autographs I wanted, I arrived at the Firefly talk too late when it was already full [sorry, Ron Glass]. Then, at 8.30 pm came Dragon Con's first ever 'Chuck' talk!

Chuck: Now with Kung Fu action grip!



On the panel were four people; a gentleman called Patrick Cranford who was dressed as Oliver Hardy, Aaron Dunn and a lady plus third gentleman who gave their names so quickly I didn't catch them. The basic gist of the discussion was where might season 3 go following the dramatic end of season 2. Questions raised and discussed included:-

Will Chuck's new abilities be a curse rather than a blessing?
How will the writers keep up the romantic tension between Chuck and Sarah and make it believable?
Comments on a couple of future guest stars.
Chevy Chase being awesome as a villain ['a believable Dr Evil!', 'evil Steve Jobs!']
Will we get to meet Mama Bartowski?
[Warm comments about the excellent casting of Papa Bartowski]
Who might turn up as a villain? Dean Stockwell?
Might Tricia Helfer come back?
Awesome might get a bigger role.
If TPTB could cast Lawrence Fishburn as a mentor to Chuck... [Amazing stunt casting!]
Eureka had product placement; Subway sponsors Chuck ['our special sauce is really special'!]
Season 1 got a [re]run on SyFy
Perhaps John McKinley and Zach Braff could be cast as walk ons. They wouldn't have to be named, just be having a 'typical' Cox/JD kind of exchange. Then there could be a delicious moment when John encounters Casey and Zach plus Zach have a moment!
[There are good and bad crossovers]
Growing Morgan ['sounds like growing mould...'] [It's a bromance!] [Facepalm!]
Wienerlicious costume in the room!
[They would have had two if I hadn't been having to dash to the Sheraton post haste!]
Sarah is a killer – that's still going on for Chuck
Character development for Ellie?
Awesome = Malibu Ken [y/n?]
Bring back the British spy!
Intelligence agencies do recruit from universities

Buffy Horror Picture show [#2]

Arrived at the ballroom at a run! Happily I was mostly changed and just had to deploy my home-made Sweet mask and put my bags somewhere safe. It was absolutely amazing being Sweet the demon. I loved every minute of it. Thanks to the rest of the cast, who were awesome. I'll gladly do it again next year!!

Hello All! Just starting this!!