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Con Report
Creation Grand Slam – March, 2004
By Kelpster
On March 28, 2004,
Creation Entertainment held their Grand Slam event at the convention center in Pasadena, California.
They had a huge guest list of actors from the many Star Treks, Angel, Smallville
and The Dead Zone, but I was pretty much focused on their Stargate programming.
The festivities started the night before for me. The [ Our Stargate Forum ]
hosted a dinner at Moose McGillicuddy's, which was reminiscent of the bar in
Cheers, but all the chairs were barstools. There were over two dozen of
us there, chattering, laughing and generally having a good time. Stargate
themed party favors were given out, and an inflatable Thor observed the whole
thing from his vantage point of leaning against a pillar. Many of the
partiers retired to the Westin to watch a DVD of Sumuru and boarded the Westin's
complimentary van for the journey. It was full when I peeked in...and saw
Thor sitting happily on the driver's lap. They seemed to be an instant item and
I have since seen photos of them together...very compromising photos! A
small group of us walked back to the hotel as it was only a 5 or 6 blocks and
the night was wonderfully mild. We paused to appreciate the planetary
alignment that was occurring at the time and spiritedly debated which of those
merry little lights was Mars as only people who've had a beer or two can do.
The Sumuru viewing, complete with snacks and beverages, was quite a
giggle. We watched it pretty much straight through except for 2 times
when a rewind was demanded by all (once when the Michael Shanks character awoke
sprawled across a bed, and then again for the kiss towards the end.)
It was a hoot to see it with a bunch of appreciative fans. There was a
good news/bad news ending to this story. The bad news was that we were enjoying
ourselves so much, a gentleman from the Westin's security came up and politely
asked for us to quiet down. The good news is that that happened about 15
seconds before the ending credits rolled. Perfect timing!
After that, a few of us retired to a quiet corner of the lobby/sitting room
area to talk Stargate for hours more without worrying about disturbing the
other guests.
After about 4 hours sleep, I drove back to Pasadena for Creation's Stargate Brunch at Delmonico's.
It was a bit pricey at $65, but I knew it would be one of those things I'd
regret if I didn't do it (there's nothing like trying to avoid an annoying
inner voice chanting "I told you so" to supply motivation to spend
money like a drunken sailor!) The brunch was at 10 am and everyone arrived
early and huddled in the shady areas to shelter from what promised to be a
burningly hot day. We started to have some misgivings when one of our party
overheard part of a cell phone conversation of a lady carrying a clipboard with
the Creation logo on it, "The cooks aren't scheduled to arrive until 10:30." Uh
oh.... Surprisingly, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping breezed up the
door precisely at 10 am, looking fresh and all smiles. Amanda wore a
pink, sleeveless top and blue jeans, while Michael wore blue jeans, a black
short sleeve shirt that was snug enough to give appreciative hints of the
topography of the upper chest, while draping down to hang loosely about his
rather trim physique, dark glasses and a leather jacket. The jacket disappeared
quickly, but he did look mighty fine in it! As we went into the
restaurant, I was surprised to pass by our two guests of honor as they sat at a
table, drinking dark beer. Even though the brunch advertised as having the guests
there, I had assumed they would walk through waving to us about 10 minutes before
the end of the event; I was very surprised to see them right there.
We were at the outside of the group and eventually found seats in a side room off
in the back, just grateful to be out of the heat and given a glass of water while
waiting for the food to be set up. The good news was that, since
there was no food immediately available, Michael and Amanda went right to work
table hopping--starting in our room. They spent a couple of minutes at
each table, chatting with the fans and posing for photos. Since I was
only expecting to have to wave back, I had no question or small talk prepared;
I took photos instead. Luckily, someone else at my table was both
prepared and somewhat resistant to the Cerulean Haze (an affliction of
dazedness that is common when the smitten are able to see the blue of Mr. Shanks'
eyes.) We found out that some rope fibers had drifted down from the rigging
on the set and he'd rubbed his eye before realizing some had gotten into his
left eye, scratching his cornea again, hence the sunglasses. Amanda
needed to take a quick break, so he lingered at our table for a few minutes extra.
He picked up a page of questions that had been culled from the OS [ Our Stargate Forum ]
forum--a resource for fans that wanted a well-thought out question for his
Q&A but were unable to think of one at the moment. He asked where
they came from and seemed impressed by both the community and organization of
the project. When Amanda came back, we were taking pictures and she
offered to operate my camera since I was at an odd angle. It's a digital
camera and she seemed tickled by seeing the photo immediately. I believe she
ended up taking the photo of Michael and I--though I was pretty impaired by the
Cerulean Haze at the time. Both guests came across as quite pleasant,
generous with their time, witty, charming and gracious. It turned out
that the $65 was a bargain after all.
As they schmoozed deeper into the restaurant, we moved in on the buffet. It was
already picked over, but the remnants were still pretty good. Crab legs, oysters,
shrimp, prime rib, lots of small, tasty gourmet type things besides the
usual bacon and eggs benedict. The desserts were a variety of cheesecakes
and other tasty items. We had to eat fast as the Stargate panel was
supposed to start at noon and we still had to go across the street to the
convention center, get into the con and find out where to go to get our
assigned seats. As we left, Michael and Amanda were still going table
around tables even though there wasn't much time left. It was overheard
later in the autograph line that Michael and Amanda had missed eating their
breakfast at the brunch and so spent the entire day with growling stomachs, their
only nourishment two beers.The Stargate Sunday Pass was $89 and it included the assigned seats and an autograph
with both Amanda and Michael, which really wasn't too bad. The assigned
seats were a good idea because the auditorium was fairly full by the time we
arrived. I'm sure it was probably packed on the previous days for the original
Trek guests, but on Sunday, this was the fullest I saw of all the panels.
Still, I was too far away for good picture taking. Oh well.
The Q&A panel went well and was quite entertaining. A fairly detailed
report of this panel can be found [ HERE ] I was pleased that Michael said
there was some good banter between Jack and Daniel already filmed, and both AT
and MS seemed energized about the new season. Amanda said Pete would be
back, which I hope means they will leave off some of the Jack/Sam ship of
late. There was the inevitable question about fanfiction. Michael
immediately brought up slash, with Amanda jumping in to ID the pairing as Jack
and Daniel. MS added Teal'c to the mix, then Amanda added "with jello"--which
all sounds pretty specific for folks who haven't read any of it! Amanda
mentioned seeing some art that involved Sam and Janet, which perked up Michael
quite a bit. I would point out the double standard except for the fact
that the entire exchange was filled with good-humored laughter and nary an
offended attitude in sight. They obviously find the whole subject
amusing. Anyway, read the panel transcription to enjoy all the wonderful
questions and answers. The panel ended with a spirited standing ovation
by the audience.
I think Michael's autograph session was immediately afterwards and they went roughly
in order of our ticket numbers. I was in the middle, and while he wasn't allowed
by the con to personalize the photos, he was drawing little faces after his
name. I think he's a bit of a rebel! I had him sign the current MGM
calendar, the page where he's in the muscle shirt. <g>
Afterwards, I went to stand in line for my photo opportunity with him.
His autograph duties went about 45 minutes over what had been allotted so the
photos started late. Due to the volume, we were allowed about 5-7 seconds
as we sat in a chair beside the guest, got ordered to look at the camera and
were hustled out. I think I managed to shake his hand and thank him for
coming to the con, but it was pushing the limits to do that. As always, he
makes good eye contact with each fan, listens carefully and is gracious to a
fault. Later, when they spread the photos out for pickup, they did indeed
need to bring out another table to hold all the photos, and actually, the
convention personnel hung about and slipped even more photos into the slots
left bare by those that had just been picked up. For some unknown reason, they
had Amanda signing autographs with Brent Spiner as part of the Gold Pass. Everyone
wanted BS's autograph it seemed (I heard later he rarely signs, so everyone was
eager to get one.) After quite a wait, they finally announced that if someone
wanted just AT's autograph, to go to another line. That went much faster.
Her photo session was towards the end of the day and I hear they really buzzed
through that because she had to catch her plane back.
Now, while I was waiting for AT's autograph, I was perfectly placed to hear Michael
Rosenbaum's Q&A. He's quite a live wire, quick witted, loud and obviously
loves hamming it up in front of a live audience. At one point he brought
up slash, knew the fannish name for it was Clex and called everyone freaks, but
he was laughing and obviously having a great time with it all. He also
mentioned Michael Shanks, saying, "He's a good looking kid. Strong."
Later on, he mentioned a conversation they'd had where MS stated he hadn't seen
Smallville yet. MR, loud and with faux indignation, demanded to know why
not as it had been on for THREE YEARS! Since both Stargate and Smallville
have hockey teams, I wanted to ask him what he thought of MS's skills compared
to his own, but I lost the opportunity (in the first dvd of season 7, there's a
profile of Michael Shanks and it shows him on the Stargate hockey team as they
play against the Smallville team. I've had no luck in picking out MR so far.)
In the autograph line, I told him that he and John Glover are the best part of Smallville.
He smiled and said to keep watching.
It was towards the end of the con by this point, so we went across the street and
had dinner, and then retired to a room at the Hilton where a group of us chatted
for hours more about Stargate (go figure!)
I actually had a very good time, with the brunch being the highlight. You
know how you wonder whether it's a good idea to meet celebrities as you might
find yourself disappointed? No worries with these two! They were very
kind and quite amusing, too.
End
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