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Well everyone, I am back form Los Angeles and a weekend spent with James Marsters.
It was great!!!
Personally whenever I read convention reports I always enjoy the details so I will be including many of them in this report, just thought I would warn you all!
Thursday September 7, 2006:
The trip started out promising (even though I had to be at the airport at 5:30am). I spotted a Star right away FRANKIE MUNIZ, the star of Malcolm in the Middle was on my Flight. It surprised me that he was flying alone (I always thought that stars had people with them to handle stuff) also that he wasn't flying first class. For everyone wondering, No, I did not go up to him. I did not want to bother him.
After I arrived in LA, and got to my hotel in Long Beach, I ended up taking a nap. Only woke up because my friends arrived and woke me up (I might have slept the rest of the day away). Once my friends arrived we out for some sight seeing!!!
The traffic in LA is horrible!!!! Also it is really, really, really easy to get lost. The only good thing about getting lost according to my friends is "well, at least we are seeing places we wouldn't have seen otherwise". But we did manage to see the following things on Thursday:-Marilyn Monroe's Grave.
-Grauman's Chinese Theatre
- Hollywood walk of fame
We also wondered around looking for the Hollywood Sign, but couldn't see it. Which was driving us nuts, we kept saying isn't it a great big Sign, shouldn't we not help but see it! Turns out, it is harder to find, since it it is a lot further away and you can only see it from some spots. We also got lost a few times and had car trouble that made us have to go back to the airport and get a new rental car. So that killed the rest of the night for us.Friday September 8, 2006:
We left early to go do some more sight seeing. We headed to Santa Monica to see the Pier, and the plan after that was to see the Venice Beach boardwalk. But once again we hit traffic, we did spend some time at the Santa Monica Pier. Which was great, I heard that is where some of the movie "The Lost Boys" was filmed. We tired to get to Venice Beach, but I had the wrong directions and we ended up in the middle of the city of Venice Beach and not at the Boardwalk. Since my friend wanted to get back to Long Beach so we could register for the convention early, we did not make it to the Boardwalk.
We got to the Queen Mary shortly after the registration opened and there was already a long line. All women of course. I don't think there was more than 5 guys there total during the entire convention! My friends stayed aboard the Queen Mary for the Friday and Saturday nights, so I got to see the State Rooms and the ship. I have to say it is all a little weird. Cool in a way, but the whole place has this strange vibe to it. The rooms were a lot bigger than I thought they would be, but just as hard.
The convention it self started at 6:00pm with a reception for the premium ticket holders. There was a cocktails reception followed by dinner and then a concert.James was suppose to mingle with the guests during the cocktail reception, but the room we were in, which I don't think had air conditioning got way too hot, so they moved us into the grand ballroom where we had dinner. James did come around and sit at all the tables (twice) and speak to all of us. I was one of the lucky one because he sat right next to me. He looked fantastic in his Tux and he made sure to make eye contact and say Hi to each of us. Everyone was pretty quite at my table, but I made sure I spoke to him. I told him that Juliet Landau said Hi ( which is the message she gave me when I asked her at Fan Expo the weekend before). The great thing about James, is that once you say something to him, he then takes it from there and talks away. The second time he sat down I wished him a happy belated birthday. He said that he had a birthday and that he did nothing, that his niece was out for the day and he got to sleep, rest and play video games.The dinner was really great, the food was very good, we had our choice from a buffet and it was all very good.
The dinner was followed by James's Concert. James stayed in his Tux, but just took off his Jacket, bow tie and rolled up his sleeves. The concert was amazing, James played mostly his newer songs that he hasn't recorded yet, mixed in with a few from his CD. Then by 10:30pm the night was over. I also wanted to say that all the ladies were dressed to kill! They all looked great! I met my friends back at there to give them a report, but I opted out of drinks since I wanted to get some rest. The walk back to my hotel (which was just down the street from the Queen Mary) was only 10 minutes but since I was wearing high heals was hard on the feet, silly me for bring the heals.
Saturday September 9, 2006:Saturday was in my option the real start of the convention. The really nice thing about the venue at the Queen Mary is that all the floors (3 of them) are open to one another.
So you know what is happening on the other floors. They had different things happening at the same time, so you almost always had your choice of what you wanted to do.
The morning started with Pictures with James in his Tux, then followed by opening ceremony, followed by more pictures with James (he changed into casual clothes for the second round of pictures). Then David Fury had his Q&A, which was really funny, he is great in person! I got to ask him a question (the convention asked everyone to submit question before hand, and they would choose the best ones, submitted a whole bunch hoping they might choose some, but when they opened up my package 12 
question fell out, I had at least 2 picked for every guest including James, which was way to cool). David's Q&A was followed by a Q&A with Steve DeKnight and Dee Dee Bradley. They had autographs happening at the same time, or you could choose to just hang out. During lunch they also have some Buffy episodes for us to watch.After lunch James had his Q&A, The question I asked him was: "What is your idea of the perfect romantic evening, if you were really trying to impress a girl?" I told him it was a little on the personal side before asking, in case he did not want to answer it, but James likes the sexy, dirty questions. He asked if I meant on a first date, but I said more like a 5th date. He then said, oh well that makes it whole different thing. He said that he first start with a drive maybe up to Santa Barbara, then followed by a picnic dinner, then maybe check in to a really nice hotel and let nature take it course (those are his words) followed by room service really late at night. It all sounded good to me!!!
James's Q&A was followed by Mercedes McNab Q&A. All the guest were great, however I and few others I spoke to found Mercedes a little detached it almost seemed like she did not want to be there and was bored to death. She did bring along her dog, which she had sitting on her lap almost the entire time.After that Jane Espenson had her Q&A which was really nice, Jane is just the sweetest person!!! After Jane Tony Todd has his Q&A, he was nice if not a little boring, but that might be because I am just not that into him. At the same time as this Q&A were happing, Mercedes had her Photo session, but she left early so we went up right after Jane's Q&A she was already gone somewhere. This really upset us, because we had to pay extra for the pictures, and she had just left! However they managed to get her to come back to finish her photos. In mine I asked her if she could include her dog, since I thought he was pretty cute, so she is holding him for my picture. After this, they showed the Buffy episode "Harsh Light of Day" and had James, Mercedes (who were both in the episode) and Jane (who wrote it) on stage doing a live commentary for it. It was pretty interesting watch those three talk about it. Though Mercedes did not say much.
After that they serviced dinner, this once again a buffet and was very, very good. As we were staying in line getting our food, I saw Jane Espenson also getting some food, and invited her to sit at our table, much to my surprise she excepted. However once we got back to our table, these 2 women (who somehow did not realize it was Jane Espenson) wouldn't let her sit at the table and said that all the seats were taking. I just stood there looking at them with my mouth open thinking what the fuck our they doing? I started auguring with then saying we had an extra sit but Jane said it was alright and left to sit at another table. One of my friends then asked the ladies why they wouldn't let Jane Espenson sit down, they were both surprised it was her and then felt bad. One of my friends bought her a glass of wine to say we were sorry.
After dinner James held another concert which was for everyone, once again it was fantastic!!! After that they screened a few great thing, including 3 five minute clips from James up coming film Shadow Puppets, also they showed the never before seen audition tape for James audition for the role of the younger Picard in the movie Star Trek Nemesis. And lastly they show the Anthony Stewart Head Pilot Him and Us (which was Executive Produced by Elton John). That ended the evening, and I headed back to my hotel, it was a long day ending at around midnight.
Sunday September 10, 2006:Sunday was a little more relaxed, we (my friends and I) met for breakfast where we ran into Jane once again. I invited her to join us again and promised that we had an extra seat this time. She thanked us, but said they she had work to do, and she did spent her entire breakfast writing. The convention started with an screening for the Buffy episode Something Blue (which is my favorite) the Steve DeNight had his Q&A, followed by a screening of a smallville episode that Al Gough and Miles Millar did a live commentary for. However I missed it completely since I was waiting in line for James autograph, that was really the only time I waited in the line (for any real time) the entire weekend. James was taking his time and talking to all his fans as they went up to him. I unfortunately had 5 posters for him to sign and was having a lot of difficultly with them so I did not get to really talk to him, since I was trying to hold on to those damn posters and keep them form falling off the table. He did say he liked my gift, but did not have time to take it out of the gift bag. He got a lot of stuff as gifts!!!
After James autograph, I went to get Mercedes autograph but she was not there yet (even though she was suppose to be) I asked Steve (the one in charge) where she was and he looked upset and said he wasn't sure and would give her a call. She showed up about an half an hour later. She was also scheduled to do a second Q&A which unless I missed it altogether did not happen. After Lunch Tony Todd and Michael Winnick had an Q&A about Shadow Puppets (I think, not sure since I missed that one as well) I was waiting in line with my friends so that they could get James autograph.
Then they held a Q&A with all the writers for Buffy/Angel that were there which were David Fury, Jane Espenson and Steve DeNight. It was the funniest Q&A I have ever heard the 3 of them were so funny together!!! It was the best!!! Then once all the Q&A's were done, they performed the play "Teachers" I have to say that watching that play was worth the entire trip to LA. I LOVED IT!!!! James is completely memorizing on stage, you can't take your eyes off him!!! The play itself was also great the 2 actress were wonderful!!! It was the perfect end to the weekend!!! If anyone ever get the chance to see James perform in person I say jump at it, it is so worth it!!! They end the convention with closing ceremonies, where they gave out a few prizes and that was about it. By 6:00pm the entire convention was over, which made Magie sad! But it was a really great convention, and I got to hook up with some friends I made on last years convention, not to mention I made some new ones!!!As a matter of fact I met these great girls there and they gave me the addresses to where I could find some locations where Buffy and Angel were filmed. So after the convention we went to find these places, one of my friends was too tired to join us, and other had to visit a friend but 2 of us had a blast and half finding/seeing these places.
In order of where we visited them, we saw:-Angel Mansion
-The Hyperion Hotel (Angel's Hotel)
- Sunnydale High School
- Buffy's House.
We got pictures in front of all of them, but since it was night, some are hard to see.But it was sooooooooo cool to see these places in person. My friend Kelly said it was like we were going on a pilgrimage, and after I said that we had seen our Mecca. After all that fun, we just headed back to hotel, I was so tired that I slept through one of my friends coming back to the room in the middle of the night, I did not hear a thing!
Monday September 11, 2006.
We had only one thing planned of Monday, to visit the happiest place on earth.Yes, we hit Disneyland. We took the morning easy, woke up later had breakfast and arrived at the park around noon. The park was not crowded at all so we did not have to wait in line, for even the good rides. We hit almost all of them, and walked around the whole park, we did not leave until the park closed 8 hours after we arrived. It was a fun day.And I got a lot of pictures!!!
Tuesday September 12, 2006.
I had wanted to see a show taping while I was in LA, my first chose of The Price is Right was not taping at all that week. Damn I could have won a car! So I decided on Dr. Phil, since he tapes at Paramount and we wanted to do the Paramount tour away. We were suppose to be there between 7:30am to 8:30am. But we hit traffic once again, this time really bad, and we arrive at about 8:45am, this was too late for us to make the first taping, 2 of my friends were unable to stay for the second taping because they had to catch their flight home, and it would not give them enough time. But 2 of us stayed and watched the show, it was very interesting to see it live, though the topic was a sad one, it was about homeless and people that were one pay check away from being homeless.
After the taping we held over to the studio and took the tour which was really good, the guild went over all these cool facts, and took us onto really sets. We even got to see Bob Newheart, since he was shooting on the set for "The Insider" when we hit the wardrobe department, I started talking to the guy that runs it, he told me that Angel had been filmed there just across from there, I almost ran out looking for the stage (even though there was nothing there anymore) he even said that if we were just a few years earlier we would have seen David and James walking around since there were always there. How cool is that, I had no idea Angel had been filmed at Paramount, just a lucky thing we came across!After all that excitement and a full 5 days of fun, we headed back to the hotel. It took us over 2 hours to get back down to Long Beach, so we were so tired, and after dinner just went to bed.
Wednesday September 13, 2006.
This was a boring day, basically I spent the whole day, flying back and at the air port, and there wasn't anyone famous on the plane. Though the cats were really happy to have me back. My dog however seemed more interested in my suitcase them having me back, damn dog!
Well that is it my entire vacation!!! Hope you all enjoyed the novel I just wrote.
Thanks, Magie
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