"awwww...."
JAMES, JAMES,
JAMES, JAMES, JAMES…..
*sigh*
Flashback Weekend 5/10 & 5/11
Chicago.
Despite the following: electricity going
out as we were getting ready to leave, a muffler
threatening to fall off, a rear car light not
working…and April being sick, we arrived at the hotel
early Satuday morning, because I wanted to buy a photo
op with James, before they sold out.
In fact, spectacularly uneventful traffic has us
there before 9:00am.
We check our baggage with the front desk because
there’s no room yet, and then go get our Flashback
Weekend packages from the desk downstairs. I purchase my
photo op and am ecstatic!
Then about an hour later the dealer’s room opens.
It’s so crowded in this tiny area downstairs, the dealer
room so small, that except for the sellers in the hall,
you have to be let into the room by some guy who looks
like 1) he’s a bouncer, and 2) he enjoys his job a bit
too much. I’ll see him around during the rest of the
weekend, too, acting like he’s all so important.
Oh, buy this really pretty necklace at one of the
tables in the hall. Buy April a fan, she also buys a
necklace.
Then I go into this presentation by B.A.P.S.
(Bloody Awful Poet Society – they have the "William"
doll on display!) and it’s nice and air-conditioned,
unlike the stifling halls one has to wait in for all the
other events! This guy Joe has decided to hang with me,
April is going to come back after going up to retrieve
her thing for Iyari, Tom, Danny, etc. to sign. She’s got
a "Now Leaving Sunnydale" sign card (don’t know the
season) and because the show is ending, she wants
everyone to sign it. They announce there’s spoilers in
their discussion of ‘The Future of Spike,’ so I leave my
seat and Joe and go find April to wait in line for
autographs.
In Ballroom B downstairs Iyari Limon (Kennedy),
Tom Lenk (Andrew), George Hertzberg (Adam), and a guy
named Schwartz (I think) who was in The Mummy, as
well as Buffy & Angel are down there. The package
includes autographs for James Marsters, Mark Metcaff
(The Master), Danny Strong, & Tom Lenk.
I have a S-6 card of Danny and Tom (Andrew &
Jonathan), so I get Tom to sign it. He personalizes it.
I tell him how much I love his character this season,
how funny he is, etc. Quote, "…and then we rode on
Spike’s Hog," to him. *eyeroll*
April has bought Iyari a t-shirt, like the one
she admired of hers in Cleveland. She still remembers
April’s name and signs a picture for her (of her &
April) as well as gives her a photo of herself and signs
it, "To my sweet girl, April" Love,
Iyari
April pays for G.H.’s signature ($10) but I only
get Tom’s.
We go upstairs then and get our luggage and go
down this ridiculously long hall to the elevator. I go
up first and luckily, April finds it,
too.
We rest for a while, April feels like shit.
Yelena from the Cleveland Con calls us, and comes down
to visit with us. She’s a whole other building away and
calls on the way, she’s forgotten the room number, what
with the confusion from the elevators,
etc.
She’s there with her boyfriend, who’s going to go
see Chicago, and not hang around the
con.
We eat sandwiches I made, then go down to get
Danny Strong & Mark Metcaff’s autographs. These are
upstairs, and the line is very, very long. When we
finally get to them, April enjoys talking to Danny very
much. She’s liked him throughout the run of the show and
he’s her favorite Troika. I have him sign the same card
that Tom signed and a free card (from when Buffy wore
this yellow dress and had to face The Master), which
came with the package.
By this time it’s probably around 3pm, so we go
to the room to rest and to get ready for the
concert.
We get all pretty (more an effort for me) and get
ready for the concert.
The bus is right there in a couple of minutes and
it only takes us about 10 minutes to get to Park Ridge
and the Pickwick Theater. We decide not to go in and
listen to Iyari, as we’re both hungry and there’s much
nicer and less expensive restaurants right around the
theater. We settle on Panera Breads and I have a
delicious Hot Turkey with Artichoke, Spinach, & some
sort of special pesto sauce on it. April has some sort
of cold chicken sandwich, but winds up eating about half
of mine, which she likes better and she can "taste it,"
through her cold.
We get to the theater, and even though we’re in
row P, as we were in Cleveland, this row P is a lot more
accessible to the stage. With the exception of the
person who is always must be hired to sit in
front of me and partially block my view. This time it
was "Curly-I’ve-never-changed-my-hairdo-for–20
years-lady), a couple of rows up that I had to keep
going back and forth to see around her head, next time,
it will probably be "Tallest-man-in-the-world," hired to
sit in front of me. There must have been two of them,
because another lady said she got the, "Man-mountain,"
in front of her. Alas, the theater was nicely on an
angle, so it wasn’t too horrible. And like I said,
closer to the stage.
So, first they play a clip from when Adam looks
human and Buffy has come to see him and Riley and
they’re talking about world domination, then George
Hertzberg comes out and he is freakin’ hysterical. Who
would’ve thunk it? They also show the scene where Adam
comes across the little boy. That was funny. Then the
screen says, "Welcome, George!" Clap, clap.
I’d never, ever heard him speak or seen him in
anything else, and I think I and the rest of the
audience fell totally in love with him. He’s hysterical.
Says he likes to babble. Really, really enjoyable. And
despite what he thinks, we all think he would do great
stand-up comedy.
Next they do a clip of The Master from when he
kills Buffy and she kills him. Mark Metcaff comes out
and is funny, too, but in a much more amusing way. He
now lives near Milwaukee with his wife and they own a
restaurant (which I knew) and he does Shakespeare
theater (at least last summer) there. He’s also been in
Seinfeld as The Maestro (funny, The Master, The
Maestro!) and in Animal House with Jim Belushi. Made
some comments about partying with them, using illegal
substances, etc.
Then they show clips of the Troika from last
year, and some individual ones of Danny & Tom. They
come out and they are very much like their characters,
in the way that they interact with each other, teasing,
playing off each other, but not in the nerdy sense.
Danny is the more outgoing, Tom seems quite shy. Danny,
when asked if he gets mobbed by fans, replies, "No,
where are all you guys when I walk out my apartment?"
Think he’s a real flirt. He’s so pint-sized! Tom &
Danny only live about 2 blocks from each other. How
cute. On the other hand, there’s probably some area that
lots of mid-range (not really rich) actors live in, in
Santa Monica.
After they speak, there’s a half-hour
intermission, while GoTR (James and Ghost of the Robot)
sets up for the concert, so we go
outside.
When we come back inside, you could see the band
members behind the screen, then James walks on (behind
the screen) and the anticipation noise raises, as
everyone can see that it’s him from his walk.
There’s a guy who comes out and tells everyone to
take a seat (people were already up at the stage) and
that everyone should remain in their seats. I hear a
lady behind me joking that this must be the, "Concert
for the Geritol set!" *snicker,
snicker*
So they think!
The music starts, the curtain starts to rise, and
April decides she’s going to go up and snap some
pictures up close before returning to her
seat.
I don’t remember what the opening song was, but
afterward, (I think afterwards?) he says, "You guys are
really going to have to sit during this?" or something
like that.
Well, that did it, and everybody got up! I just
!LOVED! how he sort of went against whoever was
‘handling’ it in that way. I mean, it was a small
theater, a very mixed bag of ages, from a few
youngsters, to even people around 60, so it wasn’t like
it was going to be some stampede.
Besides, I’m sure he likes to watch people
enjoying themselves and probably likes to play to the
women.
April? She’s not come back and I didn’t figure
she was going to, I couldn’t even see
her.
The band rocked I was so glad that
I’d brought these high power binoculars (which I usually
hate) because I could look at him (up close and
personal) and just imagine him
singing to just me (when he would look at
the audience, that’s what it seemed like – okay, so I’m
delusional, your point
being?).
James only played guitar twice, so I
sort of missed seeing him with the guitar, but he sang
fine, they did lots of favorites: Valerie, David
Letterman, Liar, Vehicles Shock Me, Dangerous, Angel,
German Jewish, Mad Brilliant, Call 911, and they did 2
or 3 new songs that I really liked. My favorite I don’t
recall the name, but Charlie ( I think) had this really
cool sound effect that made me think of ocean waves at a
couple of parts of the song. Was a sort of yearning type
of song, that made me think maybe James wrote it, but
almost sure he wrote this other song named Kate. Been
hearing that they’re putting together some new songs for
a new CD. Cool! Anyway, it was a fun time (they came
back for one encore) and would have loved to have stayed
for another set, but April was really pushing herself,
what with being sick and all. In fact, she’d wanted to
take a cab back before the show even started, but being
the mean mom that I am, I wouldn’t let
her.
Oh, how could I forget, when it ends, April comes
back up the aisle and says to me, "You’re going to hate
me!" then proceeds to tell me that after she took the
picture, she got "stuck" behind everyone else that had
come up and couldn’t move and that James made eye
contact with her a lot during the concert. She asked me,
"Did you see when he bent over sideways? Well, I’d taken
my jacket off and he was trying to read my shirt!" (She
had this bitchin’ black sleeveless T-shirt on that said
LONDON in gold letters. She wore a gold star necklace,
gold earrings, black pants, black boots, and some gold
bracelets.) Lucky girl! Grrrr! Oh well, if it couldn’t
be me (that’s ME, ME, ME waaahhhh!) at least she’s a
part of me! Funny thing is, is that she’s the one who
LOVED him first (as she always reminds me, "You stole
him from me, mom!") but now she’s rather cooled on the
whole thing, what with having her own boyfriend, and all
that, but she still loves to get my
goat!
Anyway, back to the hotel, we hang in the lobby
for a while talking (actually, I’m hanging, waiting for
her to finish talking to her boyfriend) and then we get
ice cream and take it to our room.
The next morning, I’ve set the clock for 7:30am,
so I can start getting ready for pics (and to have some
breakfast) I try to hit snooze and when I look at the
clock again, it says 10:45am and I almost freak out,
except that I hadn’t gone back to sleep, really. Just
stupid clock changed when I was trying to hit snooze,
only 7:45am. Whew!
Shower, dry hair, etc. Decide it’s getting too
late to eat at the restaurant, so have a protein bar and
a slim fast to drink. That and pissy little cup of hotel
coffee that comes on the sink.
Give April money for breakfast, finish getting
ready, get down there around 11:15 and am told nobody
can get back in line until 11:45, b’cuz they need to
keep the hall clear! Figure there’s going to be a
stampede around 11:45! Find April upstairs and she tells
me what a great breakfast she had, so decide to get a
coffee and some toast. The fruit bowl she was trying to
talk me into sounded great, but didn’t want all the
extra water from the fruit, with having to stand in
line…
During my toast and coffee, April reaches into
her purse and gives me her autograph ticket and says,
"Happy Mothers Day, mom. I know you wanted an extra
ticket and it means more to you than to me, so here." So
sweet! I say, "You don’t have to do that!" and she says,
"I know. But I can get his autograph another time; you
know we’ll see him again!" Got that right! I was really
touched. You know, as the mother of a teenaged daughter,
we can get into it and seem to be on different planets
lots of times, but that was really, really sweet of her.
She goes off to go look in the dealer’s room
again, and I go make a pit stop, then line up around
11:40. Run into Yelena again, and we stand in line
together. Takes about 45 minutes to get to the front.
April comes by and talks about this duck-y ring she
likes, but is $3 short. I give it to her, gladly. I’m
debating if I should have my pic taken with or without
the black & white shirt over the sexy black t-shirt
that has some revealing (a bit, ok?) slits on the front.
I like it fine, but the arms are too short. I get one
person saying without, one with. April comes back and
says do it with, otherwise I’ll be looking at the pic
and complaining about my fat arms (which she doesn’t
think look so bad) she casts the deciding vote because
she knows how I can obsess over something like
this.
Before going into the room, we’re given an
envelope to address to ourselves for the picture that
will be sent.
We see other people coming back down the hall
walking on clouds with dreamy looks on their faces, so
it’s time to get excited!
Finally, I’m
in the room, and there is a partition separating us from
the lucky person who is getting their pic taken with
James. It’s finally my turn. I go around the partition
and James is standing there.
We shake hands and I
tell him, "You guys rocked!" and he looks at me
and says, "Thanks," then I tell him something
like, "I sent my emissary up front; my daughter was
up front during the show."
Then, (I think I
did it first) I slip my arm around him and he puts his
arm around me, and I'm smiling (oh, yeah I am!); and the
picture is taken. Then I
give him a squeeze and put my head on his shoulder for a
second and he squeezes me back and says,
"Awwww...."
How cute is that?
He
"Awww'd" me!
Afterwards, April & I pack up our room and I
take luggage out in the DRIVING RAIN AND WIND, AND I DO
MEAN DRIVING!
After checking out, we run into Kelly, a friend
April made in Cleveland and we all have some nachos
before getting in line for autographs. Good nachos,
snotty waitress. Ug!
I wait in line, April pops in and out, as she has
given me her ticket. I talk to a nice lady who looks
like a mini- Joni Mitchell who is going on about how she
hates to have her pic taken, but braved it b’cuz of
James, and when it was her turn, she asked him to stand
behind her b’cuz she hates having her pic taken and he
just hopped behind her and put his arms around her. She
was on cloud 9!
April has joined me in line as I get ready
(mentally) to give him the gifts I’ve brought, and to
try to remember what I want to say to him.
I give him two t-shirts, just plain (thought
about Bears or Cubs, but didn't see any I liked) to
knock around in, and a copy of Joni Mitchell ,
American Masters, a documentary I’d seen last
month. I asked him if he'd listened to any of the CD's
I'd given him and he said he nods his head and says,
"Yeah, I have," with maybe just a bit of a
strange look. Or I’m imagining it. Hmmmm…
I have him sign an 8x10 picture of our Banquet
table, when he came over for a photo op. I also give him
this funny one I made using that and word balloons above
everybody’s head. I had to hand print out the words,
b’cuz the thing on the computer didn’t work quite right,
but he laughed and said, "Rock on!" whatever
that means. I mean I know what "Rock on,"
means, but in context to a picture with word balloons
I’m a little fuzzy…oh well…guess it means he liked it.
Hope so, I worked hard on that thing so he’d get a kick
out of it. Here’s the link to it: http://www.boomspeed.com/fairviewim/Project22.jpg(please note: i had to remove the
pic, it took up way too much bytes on Boomspeed,
but if you see the reg. pic, you can imagine where the
word balloons were and still read what they
said) the pic comes out weird here, but
it came out fine in real life. To the left is my
daughter, so her word balloon says, "Can I give you a
hug?" Mine (next to her and above his head) says, "Hey
daughter! Me, too! Look, I’m…Effulgent!" and everybody
else’s pretty much says me, too, also (I put their names
first, like ours.) Now for his, it says the following:
"James: Smiling on the outside…Security! Quick! Crazy,
Lusty Women Alert! Back to my Hotel!
STAT!"
I also gave him a copy of the story (ONE NORMAL
DAY) that I just finished, since Cleveland. I gave him
my first one when we were in Cleveland. I put it on both
a CD and a disk, sealed in a plastic page protector
along with a dedication to him.
I said, something like, "I know you'll
probably never read this..." and he says,
"No, I read all of
them," or "No, I always read all of them,"
or something like that.
OH MY GOD!
I was stunned!
Honestly.
Shocked.
Can it be true?
Seriously, I gave my stories to him because I
wanted to, felt the need to, not because I really
believe(d) that he’s going to ever read them, but
because his portrayal of the character was so amazing,
touching, poignant that I was moved to get off the
sidelines and try to do something I’d been scared
shitless to try. If I tried, then I could fail; not
finish, find out I can’t write for shit…and a whole
bunch of other scary things.
So, realistically I was only hoping he'd
hopefully, read the dedication.
Who knows, maybe that is what he's talking about…
but if he were to read the story.
Stories.
WOW!
Maybe I should I be
embarrassed…
Nah!
I mean if he can strip down for his art, (acting)
then I don’t have to be embarrassed about mine (writing
stories), that just happens to star his character,
involved with Buffy, including sex scenes, too, either.
We’re all adults here, right?
It’s just that it’s personal; I write from the
heart. It’s my song. It’s my way of exposing myself;
being heard.
Of course, posting my stories on the internet, I
expose myself publicly, but when I have even my husband
read it, I realize (though he probably doesn’t even get
it, or maybe he does, since I tell him, he’s just not
the kind of guy who talks about this kind of stuff) that
it’s more personal.
To have James read it…(and still not going to
hold my breath on this, just pondering…) WOW! That’s
just scary and very, very COOL!
The story of the Pens:
When April & I first walked up, he was
changing pens, so I joke with him, "Oh, a new pen,
just for me?" and he says back, "Yes, just for
you!" then April gives him this pen from her purse
(another Sharpie) and told him it was great. So, he's
trying to sign the photo and it's not working, she tells
him he has to shake it. Then he gives her the pen back
and says, in a funny Southern Accent, "Thank you for
the pen!" She says to me afterwards, "He made
fun of me!" but she was laughing about
it.
Oh, I told him, too, that she had given me her
autograph card for Mother's Day.
I was going to ask him if he talked to his mother
yesterday, also, but with all I was trying to remember,
just figured it would eat into my time and I'd forget
about what I REALLY wanted to say.
So, there we are about ready to leave the line,
and April and James are talking pens, when I remembered
what I so wanted to tell him and didn’t find the chance
to do so in Cleveland.
I said (and I'm not sure the order):
"James, do you remember when
you said that with music, as either the listener or the
singer, that it touches you, without your intellect
filtering it? That's what I always liked so much about
Joni Mitchell, and that's what you’ve done with
Spike."
{Oh, God, it was all so quick, and without a
recording I hardly know what I said exactly, let alone
the order. At this point, I believe he puts his hand on
his heart, signifying he knew that I meant what I was
speaking of; that what touched me about Joni's music,
his acting; cuts right to the heart of the matter.
Then I say:
"And I just wanted to thank
you for the inspiration, if it wasn't for Spike,"
( I say, nodding toward him and his eyes get big -
how sweet! And again, memory…his eyes could have gotten
big when I was comparing him to Joni Mitchell; the
effect she had on the heart, that he has…) "what
you/he (not sure which pronoun I used) brought out, I
don't think I would have ever written anything, and now,
5 stories and 150,000 words
later..."
James doesn’t say, "Thank
you," or "How sweet," or "I’m flattered."
He says something much better,
something that lets me know he gets it! He says,
"Feels good to be heard, doesn't
it? ... your God given right!"
Yeah.
That is was what it’s all about for me!
I keep saying (to family and friends) that
writing has brought me closer to my true self than
anything has for a very, very long time. I don’t say
those words to him, but he gets it. He really gets it!
(okay, think Sally Field now, I did – "You like me, you
really like me!")
Then he gives me a high five, but I take his hand
and shake it, instead.
Damn! I just LOVE that
man!
I leave the room now and I’m in a daze trying to
remember just how I said what, how he said what…at least
April was there as my spare memory!
I feel satisfied. Think I need an after
satisfaction cigarette. *snicker* Sorry, couldn’t
resist.
Now we leave the hotel and give Kelly a ride over
to the Pickwick, on the way, we pick up some Krispy
Kreams for home. Natch!
The Q & A was wonderful, (except for the
little gabby 4 year old, whose mother thought it was
perfectly alright to bring to this, hey, we all spent
money to hear HER kid yapping!) James seems truly more
relaxed here than in Cleveland, think it’s just that he
really love Chicago. That’s so cool!
I’m not going to include his Q & A here,
there’s plenty of places on the boards that have all
that.
In summary, I loved meeting all the stars, they
were all so funny and nice in person. It was, overall, a
great experience, less the hotel, organization,
etc.
But…
James...my heart totally belongs to
him!
spikealicious
