Vulkon Houston Slayercon
April 1-3, 2005

Houston Airport Marriott - Houston, TX

Guests
James Marsters: Spike (BtVS/AtS)
Amber Benson: Tara (BtVS)
Andy Hallett: Lorne - The Host (AtS)
Camden Toy: Gentleman, Ubervamp and Gnarl (BtVS), Prince of Pain (AtS)
Jonathan Woodward: Holden Webster (BtVS), Knox (AtS), Tracey (Firefly)
Jenny Mollen: Nina Ash (AtS)
James C. Leary: Clem (BtVS)

Houston Buffycon - Part, the first.

So I'm going to kind of vary my convention report a little from the usual format, and pretty much just go with what I remember rather than chronological, or even person specific. I will end this one with my favorite James moment however, so stay tuned!

I do want to say that the organization was much better this go round. Lines were very minimal and went very fast. Problems were resolved quickly and with little hassle at all. Schedules were kept pretty much on time except for sunday morning, but there is a long and not unexpected reason for that.

I got to spend lots of time with whenbuffysmiles, october_fay, sunlit5, oracleholly, bloodshedbaby (whom I completely missed at oakland!), ladywenham, denny_dc, and several others. It was quite the little gathering, and totally worth it just to get to hang out with all of them! And it didn't hurt that we were on the same floor as a lot of the stars either! Camdon was next door to us. Johnathon across the hall and one door down. James was up there for at least a while. Amber and Andy were on the floor a couple of times, but I don't know if they actually stayed on that floor.

First up:

Photo Ops Photo ops went really well for me. I was actually at the very end of of the line for each actor, so I'm not sure how much others ahead of us were really herded through, but even being "end-of-the-line" people, we weren't pushed along at all.

I didn't get introduced to Amber at all, so I took matters into my own hands and smiled hugely and said, "not that they told you, but I'm Angela and it's nice to meet you!" and I said it quite enthusiastically. Amber laughed heartily and said the usual, "nice to meet you" and we did our picture. I said something else, but I don't remember what. I had a couple of opportunities to speak with her later and she is very natural and unassuming. She's very genuine and has an interesting fashion sense. *g* Really the sweetest thing. She did actually speak to me quite a bit at other times. Waiting for the elevator, in the autograph line, and one other time. She asked me a lot of questions and really just spoke to me like we really knew each other. If I had to pick a modern day actress to tell my children to position in front of my children, it would be her. I am not joking when I say she stole my heart.

Then came Andy, and my only true gooey fangirly moment. Now, I am not a big fangirl acting person, and I like Andy, but I'm definitely not a die hard Andy or Lorne fan. Yes, I was glad I was getting to meet him and hear him, but I hadn't planned on it being the highlight of my weekend. We pretty much stayed in the same order for all the pictures, so again...end of the line. We get in to Andy, and holy cow is he tall!!! I wore my tallest shoes for the photo ops specifically because I'm such a short person. Unfortunately, it made no difference with Andy. He's so tall, and I'm so short, that the poor guy had to kneel down AND lean over so that we would be in the frame together. We did get introduced, the usual niceties were exchanged. Flash. I said thank you and turned to go.

However, Andy had a different idea much to my surprise!!! He actually reached out and touched my arm and said, "hey," so I turned around, and Andy then proceeds to go on and on admiring my hair, my make-up, my choice of colors and pointed at my shoes, and how I "really knew how to put myself together" and then he wrapped it all up, saying, "you have certainly got it goin' on!"

That would be where I cued the gooey fangirl moment. *lol* Talk about gobsmacked! I was a bit stunned, and and quite certain I caught a fly or two with my jaw hanging open the way it was, but I did manage to smile what I'm sure was a rather goofy smile and said "thank you so much!" about three times, before turning and leaving the room. So, at this point, not only has Amber stolen my heart, but Andy has as well!

Then of course, comes my ultimate for the day...James. Now, anyone who was at Oakland, knows I got *one hell* of a picture from the Sunday photo up. I had brought that picture with me to Houston and had James sign it at saturday's autograph session. During that time, James really looked at the photo and them up at me like he was trying to remember (and failing, I might add). I then told him that I didn't want to scare him, but that I had very high expectations for sunday's photo op if we were going to beat that pose. James laughed nicely and said that he would be prepared.

So, sunday and James is running behind on the photo shoots. (actually, all of the photo shoots were running behind, but that's another story and has nothing to do with the actual shoots, or the photographer, or the herding) Again, we are at the end of the line. I was customarily introduced as I walked up. Except, I was a very bad fan! I didn't immediately hop next to him and pose. Nope, not me! I walking up in front of him, with my back to Craig (the photographer) and took both his hands into mine. He looked straight at me, and by some miracle I didn't look away, or flinch, but instead I looked straight into his eyes. He said, "you look great". I said, "so do you. In fact, I have to say that there's something different about you this convention, and I must say that it's quite becoming." He replied, "well, thank you! I don't know what it is though." I said, "well, neither do I, but you look...I don't know, happier. More relaxed. Theres something, and it looks good on you." He seemed kind of stunned (or maybe scared?! *g*)

Now, mind you, my back is still to Craig and I haven't moved at all. (yet further miracles!) So, during the pause, Craig speaks up and asks if we've got it all settled yet. So, I smiled at James, and I said, "let's do this!" Then I turned aroundin front of him and settled back against him, quite comfortably nestled between his legs. He wrapped his arms around me, one across my chest, with the hand on my shoulder, the other around my waist. I put my hands on his arms, and Craig shot the photo.

I then started to pull away so the next person could go. HOWEVER, he pulled me back and gave me this absolutely wonderful big hug for a few seconds, and then let me go. I turned and smiled and said thank you, and then tried to leave without my receipt. James said something as well, but I didn't catch it.(I think I must have lost my last brain cell during the hug, because I hadn't expected it at all!)

Houston Slayercon, Part the Other

Friday, Johnathon Woodward sang for us prior to the karaoke party. He did about 5 or 6 songs, most all of them old folk songs (we're talking Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? here). He had a nice little voice, but most of the patrons had very little enthusiasm for his selections.

Next was Andy's turn, and they sang a few things together, not really bad, but not what I expected. They did do 'Sweet Home, Alabama' together which didn't sound too bad. There was some speculation that Andy wasn't feeling 100%, but he sounded wonderful.

Then came the karaoke party, which is usually as dead as your favorite vampires heart, but this round everyone decided they wanted a go! They ended up turning away 4 or 5 people because it was time to wrap up and let Leary do his show. Most of the singers did a bang up job. There was one gentleman who sang a number from Les Miserables and totally blew everyone away. However, the winner was a guy who sang "Summer Nights" from Grease. He sang both parts, by himself, in their respective octaves. It was very amusing. And this guy popped right down and did the splits during the number, and popped right back up, along with spins and dances. The singing may have been decent, but the show was what really counted! And if you happen to run across any footage or photos of me and a few other slightly intoxicated persons on stage performing "Micky", then just know that once I master photoshop, those pictures will disappear! *g*

After that, Leary showed his spoof, then did a bit of stuff from a play called Three Guys Naked From The Waist Down. Then he etertained us for about an hour with stories from his highschool and college days. Which, if you've ever seen Leary in person, you know was a total riot and exactly what you would expect from a guy like Leary in college.

Saturday brought James' Q & A, which I won't reiterate, because there are already several transcripts on the internet. Not a lot of new stuff asked anyway, but I will mention a few things.
-He said his MacBeth project is still cooking.
-He said he'd turned down a show offer because he'd have to move to New York.
-He said that he would discourage children from acting, because it's not a healthy thing for a person to do.
-One person asked if she could set up her daughter with his son (the collective groan was almost deafening!), but he fielded the question rather well. (Personally, I just wanted to choke them. It's one thing to endulge your own obsession. It's a totally different and much more scarey thing, to use your children to endulge your obsession!)
-He said that he got the script for Cool Money about 12 hours before they started shooting, because he'd been at the Halloween Convention, and almost didn't do the movie.
-He seemed to feel (like many others) that the lip service regarding Buffy/Angel verse telemovies, is just that.
-He also elaborated a little that there was some stuff done with Spike that he felt totally came out of left field and was way off character and that Spike wouldn't have done.(those are *not* my words...they are his!), and he elborated on why he thought that.
-James said that while filming one episode of Angel season 5, one of the directors came up and asked, "So...you play a vampire, right?"

Amber said two or three times, that the cancelation and SMG quitting took most everyone by surprise and that there were plans to bring Tara back into the story the next season (implying season 8), but it didn't get to happen because of the cancelation. (again, her words, not mine)

There was a lot of joking about losing takes because the studio was in the flight path of two airports, so they routinely lost every third take on the set. Amber joked that it seemed to be a really big problem on days that she and Allyson were running kissing scenes. *g* Amber was very complimentary of J. August Richards, and the he did an awesom Othello.

Andy and James relayed a rather amusing story about how you can't really get to Andy because everything just washes right over him. They elaborated on Andy being late for makeup one day and got quite the dressing down, complete with saliva hitting him in the face and was told that he couldn't even hold a job at McDonalds, after which point Andy would come in for weeks with something about McDonalds. He'd come in wearing McDonalds Hats, a picture where someone photoshopped Lorne onto Ronald McDonald, and that at the wrap party, someone was handing out McDonalds coupons that had "courtesy of Andy Hallett" printed on them.

Saturday evening brought
!James's concert!
complete with semi-festival seating. ie: it was festival seating according to ticket level. There was a 20 foot section in front of all the chairs, where anyone could sit on the floor, regardless of ticket status. That brought a few grumbles, but it was nipped in the bud rather quickly. James did all the songs from his new CD, plus Dangerous, Goodbye, and Angel.

He came dangerously close to starting quite a scandle when he said, "I wrote this next one about one of the Buffy cast," then proceeded to start singing Goodbye. About 10 seconds later he stopped dead cold as his eyes got huge, and he said something I shant repeat, and very *sternly* clarified that *that* song was NOT about a Buffy cast member, he was thinking of another song when he said that. Which promptly sent a lot of people into fits of giggles.

He introduced each song by telling us about who he wrote it about, sometimes by name, sometimes not. He did lose it just a little during Angel, which has happened before, so I don't think anyone was really shocked when it happened. He sang two deliciously scandelous songs, one about a fan at a convention, and one which was very throaty, bluesy, and 100% pure HOT sexxx, and those two will probably fuel more fantasy fic than can ever be numerated. *lol* In fact, I can say with quite a bit of certainty, that that song had a lot of women leaving a lot, erm..."happier"...than when they arrived. Or perhaps the phrasing would better be that they arrived, and quite happily! *eg*

And, were I Steve Himber, I would have repeatedly slammed my head onto the desk until I lost consciousness, because it is likely the last blissfull moment the man will have for the next several weeks. Why is that, you ask?

((James admitted that he reads fanfiction that people send him as gifts. And that he thought the fans were perfect writers because they didn't have to worry about networks and executives and that they knew the characters so well and weren't afraid to take the characters in ways they should have gone.))

That poor, poor man will be inundated for weeks with "gifts"!

After the concert, there was a dance, but for the most part the room parties took center stage as usual. Everyone lost an hour (of either sleep or partying) when daylight saving took over. Hence the sunday morning draggage I mentioned in my earlier post about the photo ops. Dragging fans and actors alike out of bed when they've been partying and lost and extra hour above what they usually would have lost anyway, was quite the daunting task! Oh, but the photo-ops were worth it!

During the extra autograph session, I got to speak with James for quite a while, and I told him how glad I was that at the upcoming Halloween convention, he was going to do an actual stage performance, regardless of what he's going to do, because I think it's a wonderful way to introduce all the younger people who come to the conventions to really good theater. That so many of them get turned off of theater and Shakespear and such because they either have only read it, or they've never seen it done well. He completely agreed and we talked about what a crime that is and how Shakespear would be having epileptic seizures if he knew we were forcing people to read his plays, becuase they weren't meant to be read. And so many people never get a chance to see a great performance of it. He added that Shakespeare actually had people beaten for writing down his plays. I added that it is one of the reasons I like his little monologues, because chances are that none of those kids will ever hear it that way again. He was quite animated during the entire conversation, and it was really a cool thing to discuss with him.

I also got to speak with Amber later, and she asked me about my hair, and she thought I was a lot younger than I am, (which made me quite happy!). I got a chance to tell her again how nice she was and such an unassuming person, and natural beauty with the most wonderful smile I've seen. We talked a little more about my hair.

And I got to ride the elevators a couple of times with Johnathon, Camdon, Andy & Amber, Jenny Mollen (who seemed a little shy, but very sweet as well).

Well, I guess that about wraps it up. It was a fun weekend. I miss all my friends already. And I absolutely can't wait until October!!!


Irishrose