Dragon*Con
August 28th - September 1st, 2003
Hyatt Regency Atlanta & Atlanta Marriott Marquis - Atlanta, GA

Guests
Andy Hallett: Lorne (AtS)
James Marsters: Spike (BtVS)
Danny Strong: Jonathan Levinson (BtVS)
Iyari Limon: Kennedy - Slayer in Training (BtVS)
James C. Leary - Clem the loose skinned demon (BtVS)
Ghost of the Robot

OK, here's some preliminary DragonCon stuff. Please take into consideration that I'm really, really, really tired, so I hope it makes sense.

Well, life is good here in Atlanta. The weather has cooled off nicely---not so much that it stopped James from wearing a sleeveless shirt highlighting very nicely sculpted arms during his first Q&A---and everyone has arrived safely, that we know about.

We arrived yesterday to be very pleasantly surprised by how nice the hotel is---that is, until our toilet overflowed, not once, but twice. We've had an engineer up to fix it twice now so hopefully it'll stay fixed this time. We're on the 36th floor, complete with glass elevators, and have to say it's a good thing I don't get too freaked out by it. I am a little, this thing moves fast, but still good fun.

The con pretty much started for everyone at 1 today. James was in a huge ballroom and by the time angstchic and I got to the room (1/2 hour early) it was packed. Luckily, a very nice guy had two empty seats next to him near the aisle fairly close to the front. James came out---sporting a patch as he's been smoking the past two days, poor guy---and in a sleeveless shirt, looking very buff and very blond. To be honest, angstchic and I haven't had time to organize our thoughts about the questions asked, so we'll try and do that for you and post it later. There were some new questions, some old questions, and a couple kind of embarassing questions (one girl was determined to get a kiss from him and just wouldn't shut up about it). He talked a lot about the technique of acting and giving advice to people considering it, as well as doing his Caliban (?) monologue for the group. He spouted his "Buffy loves Angel" line, which we kind of tuned out as well. All in all, a lot of nice stuff. Still incredibly real, and funny, and self-effacing. Definitely worth the silly stuff that popped up here and there during the hour.

We got lucky and got our husbands to get our photo ops as they started selling them at the same time as the Q&A. We are #26 and #27 with James and will get our pics taken on Sunday morning. We also got ops with Danny Strong (#4 and 5) and will get those done tomorrow morning. There's a huge queue downstairs right now for people waiting to get Buffy signatures. We got lucky. Craig had spent a lot of time talking to Danny during the Q&A because he wasn't mobbed, but he didn't get me a picture so we went down later. Well, we just walked up to him and angstchic asked if we had to wait in line or just stand there and get it. Danny said we could get it then. Well, turns out Danny was wrong, and the security guy wasn't too thrilled about it. Danny just kind of blushed, and went all hush-hush, and snuck me in anyway as he'd already said yes. Very nice guy and gorgeous eyes. Plus, sitting next to James, so bonus points there.

Angstchic and I just came back from getting James' autographs. I got my picture from Edinburgh signed and my Chance poster. When he saw the Edinburgh pic (which was signed first), he laughed and said, "Hey, we look like we're at the Oscars or something." I reminded him it was from Edinburgh and he was like, "Oh yeah." At that point, Craig leaned over (he'd been standing behind me) and said in a low voice just for James to hear, "And just so you know, I did get laid that night." James looked up then from signing and lit up when he recognized Craig, and said, "Hey, it's great to see you again, man." Craig asked him if he's getting any more sleep than he did when he was in the UK, and James said he's gotten 5 hours in the past 2 or 3 days. They talked for a bit about the concert, Craig saying that he's looking forward to the gig tomorrow night, and James said that he's fighting with the lead guitarist about not singing a song. I asked him which one, and he said, "Goodnight Sweet Girl." At that point, my face just fell, and I said, "Oh, no, you can't not sing that one. That's one of the best ones. Everyone will be so disappointed." But he said that because of the difficult range it has for him combined with the fact that he's gotten so little sleep, he just knows he'd end up slaughtering the song. He also told us that the rest of the band is arriving tomorrow.

When she got up there, Angstchic asked what he got for his birthday, if he got anything good. According to James, "Sleep and a new cell phone that works."

I made James Leary blush and spit with laughter. I'm so proud of myself.

We went and got James' autograph and when it came to my name, I told him I'd just spell it. Well, that started this discussion about the derivation of it, and last names and such. He told me his mother's maiden name (which was quite a mouthful), and I told him I could beat it. See, my great-grandmother's maiden name was Aenis, which unfortunately is pronounced like anus. He heard it, and just died, dropping to bury his head on the table from the spitting and laughing at hearing it. And I can very proudly say I was the cause of it.

Dead on my feet. Going to sleep now. Tomorrow is a busy day. Got pictures to be taken with Danny Strong in the morning and then parking ourselves for the Q&A in the afternoon. Not sure when I can post tomorrow as it's the busiest day for us here, but I'll try.

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OK, here's some of the tidbits from the Q&A James had yesterday. There were over 1000 people so I'm sure somebody recorded it to transcribe later, so this is just briefly what I remember to give those who can't be here this weekend a taste.

He was asked almost immediately about his fitness regimen as the sleeveless shirt he wore made no secrets at how defined his arms are. He admitted to sit-ups and curls but said that he only does them about 15 minutes a day because once you're already in shape, it takes a lot less time to stay looking good.

People tried right away trying to get him to reveal how he was going to come back to life on Angel, but he avoided the answer (thank god!). He did talk about the nice thing about being on Buffy and not something like Star Trek was that on ST, they had to come up with a plausible technical reason for a lot of the stuff that happens whereas on Buffy, all they needed was a spell and poof, they could go straight into the story. His point in regards to the question was that it didn't matter so much how he got there as what he did when he did, which I liked.

He talked about working with DB and told some DB stories, about how the man was a professional and it was a pleasure to be working with him.

He spent a lot of time talking about stunts and Steve the stunt guy. A couple questions were asked in relation to this---the burning of his hand story (why he did it---because he thought it would be funny and has since learned just do what the damn stunt coordinator tells you), doing Smashed (relating how he'd get to kiss SMG then go take a nap in his trailer while Steve got thrown around, only to come back and kiss SMG some more), his knee (which he says is fine now in spite of not having the surgery but he hurt his right shoulder doing a stunt the other day so that's what hurts now).

He says that in spite of doing 100 plays and more, Spike is hands down the best character he's ever played, because he's gotten to play so many sides to him.

Somebody asked how he stayed humble considering how much his stuff went for on eBay. The eBay stuff got addressed first---they told him about the boxers, to which his response was he never wore underwear on the show but somebody corrected him about the boxers (he still doesn't remember wearing them, though). He had a hard time answering the question, though, and said that his was just the only visible work in a creation made by 300 people and he just tried to focus on that.

Someone commented about how SMG and DB used to do things to each other before love scenes in order to make the other crack, and asked if he and SMG ever did anything like that. He talked then about Method acting (don't do it for TV) vs Sarah's acting and how she could just turn it off and on, which he couldn't. He also did the tree teasing thing she used to do to him. One thing he commented during this was how Method acting messed him up so badly. He actually admitted that that was the reason he got so thin in season 6, that although he produced some great stuff acting-wise, it literally ate him alive to do it. I was impressed with how he took ownership of that and recognized what he'd done.

He says that he's working a lot more on Angel than he used to on Buffy and unfortunately it's affecting the band. They don't have time to do stuff and although they have the material for 3 albums, it doesn't look like they'll be able to get a new one out before Christmas like they'd hoped because of his time issues. He feels guilty about it because the band members are so good and he doesn't want to hold them back.

Someone asked him why Harmony? He said that it was for a lot of reasons---she looked a little like Buffy, he could use her without feeling guilty. Basically, she was a punching bag for all his anger regarding women at that time, and that he picked her because she would just take it and not hurt him back.

He was asked about his experience on Andromeda. He's never watched the episode because he has such issues with what they wanted him to do, and he absolutely hated the costumes. He wasn't happy with the dandy character they wanted him to portray and it kind of soured him to it.

He commented on his patch and said that he's been stressed and smoking the past 2 days because of having to be naked a lot. It sounded like it had something to do with filming Angel, but it was quickly dropped so I'm not sure.

When asked about fitting in Venetian Heat, he deferred to Steve Himber his manager, and said basically, he just gets on whatever plane Steve tells him to and does what he does when he gets there. He's obviously so excited about doing it---he called Derek Jacobi one of the top 5 actors currently alive in the world---but didn't go into too much detail otherwise.

Somebody asked for his advice to struggling actors. He spent 5 minutes talking about different things, but basically it boiled down to...only do it if it's what sustains you because you have to give so much other stuff up in order to do it.

When asked about which he'd do if he could do one for the rest of his life---theater, film or TV---he answered theater now that he didn't have to be poor.

He admitted to only getting into tv and film for the money but now he's fallen in love with it and talked about it painting in light.

At the end, he was talking about how the autographs and pictures were going to work, how he didn't personalize anything because he rather wanted that 30 seconds of real contact instead. He commented that if he wasn't sincere to anybody, they could just go ahead and spank him. Then, as kind of an afterthought about the photos, he said, "Oh, and don't grab my butt."

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These are just some tidbits that I wrote up for some other people today about what's been happening here in Atlanta...

Back in the room for a little bit. Went to go see the Buffy people and found out when I got there that the line was obscenely long. I was lucky because Zarrah, angstchic, and Sandy were saving me a spot and so we got in. The room they were speaking in was incredibly small and could probably only hold 100 people or so; there were a LOT of people who were disappointed because they didn't jam everybody in. It meant however that we probably wouldn't see the 2nd panel as they would empty the room and fill it in with people out in the line. So, we opted to stay and watch James Leary and Andy Hallet, and passed on Danny Strong and Iyari Limon.

Smartest decision I have made yet this weekend.

I have not laughed that hard in ages. I can't even begin to start telling people what was said as things just went by so fast, but anyone who has seen these two men know they play off each other incredibly well, both are fast on the draw, and they're so damn funny. Andy just arrived; he was shooting Angel until 6pm yesterday and caught the redeye in. He apologized and held up his hands, saying he didn't want anyone to think that his hands were dirty, that it was actually green paint from shooting. He then proceeded to complain that he often found green paint coming from various "holes" in his body for days after it came off. That pretty much set the tone of the next hour.

Just various tidbits to enjoy:

Apparently, when Andy drinks, he gives away his shoes and often wakes up the next morning wondering where his shoes have gone.

James came with his best friend---someone he's known since he was 13---and though he'd made arrangements to have 2 beds, got a room with a single king-sized bed as that was all that was left. He said it made him feel like he was 13 again, to which Andy made an off-the-cuff comment about 13 being that experimental age.

Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof pitched an idea about Lorne's new club and even made up a t-shirt for Andy. It said, "Welcome to the grand re-opening of Lorne's Glory Hole. Entrance around the back."

They had a Buffy standee and an Angel standee in the room. When James arrived, the first thing he did was go up and accost the Buffy one, then turned around and did the exact same thing to the Angel one. Andy then made a joke later about James having a whole bunch of the standees at home, to which James responded "they don't last very long."

Andy has actually calculated how much time he's spent in the make-up chair (not that he actually counts that kind of thing, he kept claiming). The answer? 22.6 days.

Andy got in trouble once for only reading his parts in the script, because he was short on time. He was supposed to be going into W&H, which was bugged, and then hand something to Angel. He didn't know it was bugged or that he was supposed to be stealthy or anything, and turned it into this whole show, at which the director went, "Um, do you think you could be just a little more discreet about it?" He always reads the entire script now.

They are both incredibly thankful for the fans and fully give the fans credit for the longevity of their characters past the initial episodes they were scheduled for.

There's tons more but my mind is wiped from laughing so hard. I have now subscribed to the Andy Hallet love. If I can still get his photo, I am so there. We're about to go and try and get his autograph, too. James is scheduled to stop signing soon and with the GotR panel (which we're not going to because the queue for it was enormous already and since I've already seen them in Edinburgh, we decided to pass this time), the crowd should thin considerably around the Buffy people.

And also this...

Well, I now have both Storm Front and Fool Moon on audio, 4 of my Dresden books signed, and both of the audio sets signed by Jim Butcher as well. Nice man, rather dry humor, and quite fun to chat with. As he was signing my CD’s, he commented, “I’ll just sign them on this one side. Then, if by some chance you meet James Marsters in a dark alley some time, you can get him to sign it on the other side.”

I just laughed and said, “Oh, I think you can be pretty sure that if I run into James in a dark alley, getting his autograph is the last thing I’ll be trying to get him to do.”

Jim laughed at that and nodded. “Even though I’m a straight male,” he said, “it doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate that that is one good-looking man.”

We went and got Andy Hallet’s autograph after that. The GotR panel had started so there was absolutely no line. There are still picture ops left with Andy (angstchic and I are going to get one taken together; we want a Lorne sandwich ), but the guy wasn’t there for them at the time so we have to go back later. I got Andy to sign my Chance poster and he started bitching about how he got left off the credits. He even was complaining that they credited the guy who wrote the songs and Andy was the one who sang all of them. It was very funny. We were actually the last ones to get anything today. He was sneaking out to eat and sleep because he was so wasted. Angstchic and I made a comment how we hoped he wouldn’t get caught, and he just gave us a wave of dismissal and said he didn’t care ‘cause he was going to do it anyway.

The banquet is in an hour with the GotR concert afterwards. People have been queueing all day to get into it so I’m not even beginning to harbor any suspicions that I’ll be anywhere near enough for pictures. However, 2 of the people who have been waiting all day are slayer chick and Luv, so I’m sure they will have a ton of pics to share. I took my camera with me to the JL and AH panel, but they weren’t allowing flash photography and I couldn’t get the flash turned off, so no pics from me there. Sorry. Craig’s going to show me how to fix that so that I can get pics tomorrow.

Speaking of Craig, he will finally be emerging from our room to go to the banquet. He and angstchic’s husband have been holed up in here for most of the day playing the Xbox angstchic’s hubby brought. Men.

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Just got back from the Q&A this afternoon, and have a small report...

They said in the beginning that the format for the Q&A would be slightly different---questions would be moderated and people would queue in the aisle to wait to ask it. Well, before the questions could really get under way, a girl from halfway back yelled for James to take off his shirt. His immediate response was, "No," rather firmly, followed very quickly by, "Who said that?" The girl took ownership of asking and stood up, and he asked her to come up to the stage. Once she was up there, he asked if she was wearing a bra. Now, this was not a small person, dressed completely in black, and when she told him she was wearing a bra, he basically dared her to take her shirt off first. So, she did, leaving her bra in place. The shirt didn't really come off, she just kind of pushed it down around her waist, but her arms were out and everything. She said something along the lines of, "My shirt's off now," to which he said, "No, it isn't." And that's when we got the show. Bra came off in all her not-so-pretty glory. James turned bright red---it was very obvious he was not expecting her to go through with it---and then said, "You rock," and gave her a huge hug for having the nerve to do it in front of a huge auditorium of people. He still refused to take his shirt off, but the whole thing kind of shook him up because he really, really, really wasn't expecting her to take him up on his dare.

That was really the only bad part of the Q&A. The questions were very closely monitored, many of them really making James think, talking about acting theory, a lot of stuff about theater, and the like. It was quite serious compared to Friday's session, and frankly a lot of it blurred together. He joked at the end of the session that we all deserved class credit or something for sitting and listening to him (he kept saying he didn't know what he was talking about, that it was just him and shouldn't be taken so seriously). To be honest, the only thing that is really jumping out at me at the moment (other than the flashing thing) was a girl at the end of the session.

Everyone who was asking a question had to wait in the aisle on their knees, so that they didn't block anyone's view. Well, this one girl got up to the front to ask her question, and started out by commenting that she had rug burn on her knees now from having to wait for an hour. He made a comment about it being an image that would stay with him, and she answered back by saying, "Well, it's just that I've got the rug burns and not the story to tell my friends." James said, "Just make something up." Then, as an afterthought, he blurted out, kind of drawling it, "Just make me large." Everybody burst out into laughter, and when it died down, he asked her what her question was. She was still kind of laughing and said, "I don't remember now."

The sweetest moment in the Q&A were when two girls came up to the mic to wish him a Happy Birthday, and to tell him that their birthday was on Tuesday. He just melted, asking their names, and then how old they were. They're going to be 8, they replied. James smiled, said congratulations, and added, "I just turned a lot older." He was rather smitten with them (they did sound really cute), and commented how he'd love to take them home but he's already taking care of 2 kids there and didn't have room. He then asked where the mom was and congratulated her on having such cute kids.

Like I said, a lot of the other questions got really heavy and talked about the same thing, so I'm sure they'll show up in a transcription soon. These were the moments that stand out at the moment. I'm sure I'll remember more later, but I'm still in blur mode.

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Just some more D*C stuff...

Just to clarify, it was a hug without a bra or shirt on the girl, and though we were seated fairly far back, I think she was probably in her early 20's.

SOmeone actually asked James why he still does the conventions. He was very quick to respond, "You." Meaning the fans. He grew up going to cons and loves them. It seemed like he would be reluctant to give them up, although after the incident today, he may change his mind.

Angstchic and I went and got our photo done with Andy Hallet, and had a blast. The man is a hugger! We got our pic taken together, one on each side, and angstchic told him as we got into position, "We intend to have more fun with you than should be possible." He laughed and just hugged us in even tighter. I'm really hoping that the picture turns out well because I'm so looking forward to seeing it. I am definitely feeling the Lorne love. Angstchic is worried her hair was too smushy in the picture because he was holding us too tight, though.

I went and got another autograph from James while we were waiting to get our photo with Andy, and got my Storm Front CD's signed. There was next to no line at that point, so I had a few minutes to talk to him, and brought up an issue that is actually very close and important to me, which sparked a rather serious conversation between us (I'm not 100% comfortable talking about the details, though, so please pardon me if I'm vague about this). Let's just say that my respect for the man---if it was possible---has gone up by about 1000%.

As we were waiting for the photo, too, Jim Butcher showed up with his wife and James jumped from his seat to go off to the side (which happened to be by us) to talk to him. It is very clear these two have such a high respect for each other, and I'm very glad they had a chance to talk. When I talked to Jim Butcher yesterday when I got my stuff signed, he was asking me if I knew anything about James' schedule as he really wanted to see him. I'm glad he did.

The masquerade is tonight, but we're having a night in as witchipoo is showing up so that we can finally meet. We just got back from the Hard Rock Cafe, and I'm a little buzzed from my pina coladas. I've met so many nice people this weekend, and today has definitely been one of the best. Of course, I think I said that yesterday as well...

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OK, this isn't very detailed, only because I'm numb with laughter...

Just got back from the Buffy panel, and haven't laughed that hard in ages. It would be impossible for me to try and recreate it. The riffs these people did, going back and forth, at lightning speed and often overlapping, is going to drive anyone who is going to transcribe it absolutely buggy. Can we say tangents? Not nearly as many questions got answered because they would just go off, but it was an absolutely excellent time.

One thing to note: James started out by offering a blanket apology to anyone who was at his Q&A yesterday. He admitted that he had deliberately tried to show her what it felt like to be asked to do such a thing, and was not expecting her to just not care. He apologized to anyone who was offended by it. Very classy, I thought.

A lot of teasing was done at James' expense by the other male members, joking about his fame and notoriety this weekend, but it was all done in good humor. Iyari actually spoke very little; frankly, she probably couldn't get a word in edgewise with the men there. Leary and Strong were constantly cracking jokes (Danny joked about having a book about haikus coming out soon featuring him and SMG, it was very funny).

Oh, another important thing: Someone asked James how long he was signed on for Angel, and he said 2 seasons. His goal is to have Angel last longer than Buffy, he said. This absolutely devastated Andy Hallet, and he just kept shaking his head about not being able to handle all that make-up for that much longer. Later on, when someone asked if Spike would ever sing for Lorne, James said only if the show lasted 14 seasons becaues they would probably be really reaching for ideas at that point. Andy just fell apart at that. "14 seasons? Are you kidding me?" Hysterically funny.

One of the better bits came when someone asked James about how much Spike was in James. He said that Spike was his anger and Joss' humor, and then went on to say that he is not a nice person when he's mad. That in fact, he's an asshole. He pointed to someone in the first row then, and said, "You know. The airplane? I can be an asshole, right?" Obviously there was some story there, but the next person came up to the mic to ask a question. Things got sidetracked then, because Andy pulled out his wallet and began trying to bribe whoever it was in the first row to tell the story, starting with a single bill, then going to $40, and finally asking her if she'd take a credit card.

There are so many more bits, but I'm sure others will be able to come up with them better than I. My face hurts from so much laughing.

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