Homeland 98

My photos. No pictures of famous people, I lurk, so I was right at the back at events and stuff. And I was far too freaked out to think of photos at the signing thing.

Everyone dressed up before the Ceilidh

These pictures were taken by other people but I'm in them so I nicked them.

I'm in this picture too- lurking at the back looking like a surprised mushroom.

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This version yet more edited so it's more like a web page and less like email.

What I did at Homeland 98

Anyways, I know I'll miss out tons but, what I did, in very rough order-

Spent between 10 am and 8pm travelling to get there.

The hotel staff were in Denial too- friendly hotel people wear red.

Explored precisely enough of Glasgow to find the bank and the pizza place.

Saw Forgive us our Trespasses. Liked it. But no one else sniggers at dunkie's hurt puppy face. ;-)

Met lots and lots and lots of people (and forgot most of their names unless I online knew them anyways)(sorry)(I met more people this weekend than I have in the last three years)

Hung around at lots of MTAS/ClanDenial type parties and watched lots of people drink things with strange names, and stripes, and weird colours. Had fun. Felt a bit out of place cos I seemed to be the only one not wearing black leather :-) They talked to MT on the speaker phone. cool.

Ran away at just the right time for JB and VP to walk past me when I was waiting for the lift. VP said hi.

Heard Jim Byrnes sing. He's good. Really good. And funny and nice and stuff. And he never lets a silence drag on, he'll make a joke or something, like at the welcome bit when they said any questions and there weren't any and they just sat and waited so he said 'a man leaves boston at...' and everyone laughed. And he knows how to use his voice to fill a space, he's louder without amplification than most people managed with the microphones and stuff.

Went to Valentine Pelka's Q&A. He's nice. He is sooo not Kronos. Sometimes he just makes me want to hug him and tell him things will work out okay. (okay, theres other things he makes me want to do to, but he can be really sweet). First question asked was when's the baby due, and he said if he knew that he'd be a much less nervous man. He said tons of good stuff that I cant remember well enough to write it down, but I'm sure someone will write a proper transcript. When he was talking he'd pause in the middle of saying something particularly british and tell the americans to get their friends to translate, like saying 'give it some welly', or 'a bit of a plonker' or he wont tell people what he might be involved with soon because he doesn't want to put the mockers on it. He told about how he got to be Kronos, and about fighting AP. He said fighting a new opponent was like riding a new horse. Mental image... another weird image, he said if he played Kronos totally evil he'd be like a pantomime character, so I just got this image of panto dame Kronos... what else... He said a lot about horses. He likes horses. He wants to ride the trail with someone that knows how to live off the land. cool. Um, he talked about playing Hamlet and was he crazy or not, and apparently PW has played him too and they talk about their interpretations and stuff. I not remember the words very much but it was cool.

Then there was JBs Q&A. I remember rather less of this. Though I managed to stay physically present for this I was sort of freaking out by then. He talked about music and the new shows he's in and what projects he's working on now and who his favourite musicians are (he doesn't like to answer that one because he doesn't like to miss people out. but his not answering takes a long list :-) ) He knows the coolest people and grew up around the coolest people. Someone asked about the temptation scene in one of those episodes that never happened and he talked about that a bit, someone else asked why they had to kill Horton three times (me not dare ask next obvious question). Again, you'll have to find a proper write up if you want to know in particular what he said, I was sort of phased out and I only caught bits of it.

Then I ran away back to my room again. I missed most of the afternoons stuff. But I managed to go to my signing session on time. I said two and a half words to famous people! 'Sign t shirt' . and I didn't stutter. (my stutter was back with a vengeance by now). I tried to say something else nice to VP but it came out as sort of mneep erp. so he said pardon and I said 'nothing'. three and a half words! (this is why I prefer to interact with the world via email. I sound like I actually have functional intelligence by email). So now JB and VP signed my 'Richie's swimming in the river denial' t shirt. And Michel Modo signed the program. That was the only time I saw him.

Then back to the room and spend hours getting all dressed up for the ceilidh, which said traditional scottish dress or costumes inspired by the HIghlander series. I have pictures. even one of me in my 'Rebecca' costume.

The ceilidh didn't so much die as never draw breath in the first place, so everyone went back to the room for more drinks with strange colours and strange names. I had Irn bru. I think this was when everyone got a rat. Mine is grey and its called Methos, but don't tell him that.

Then someone who I think was called Ominous John the Goth had organized a disco in the bar. Believe it or not there was no official disco organized. But once it started it was a great success. I sat and watched (I tried dancing once but my idea of vertical is at odds with the rest of the world, so I do the 'I get knocked down' bit and I very likely to stay there...) Believe it or not I haven't been to a disco since I was thirteen. This was much better than that one. I had fun. It started in the bar, but then it they ran out of things to do in the main room and they got the music hooked up to the pa system in there. it was cool. everyone got to bed very late.

Sunday and I didn't manage to get up for the History of the Blade thingy or the Real swords fight after it. grumpy. Worse, by the time I got up I discovered the 'Valentine Reads from the classics' bit had bee rescheduled to the morning. And I'd slept thru it. no fair.

Went to Homeland auction. The horsegirls did good wanderin round with the stuff but otherwise it was kind of sucky. It started late, really late, and got later. Things were in a silly order, so you could tell people weren't buying stuff cos they were waiting for something. The sword was cool but I left when it got to about the price in pounds you can buy it from the swords and stuff site for in dollars. I popped back in a couple of times but everything was way beyond my budget. I put in a bid for the cartoon series figures (don't hiss, my little brother really likes it. But he's also in Clan Denial so he's okay really). Then I realized Id spoke out loud with a whole room full of people there and ran away again :-)

that afternoon I found I'd sold all the T-shirts. I know three of the people that got them, but the other five I don't know. Didn't do any recruiting. Didn't do much talking to people outside the MTAS. People would wander up to me, read my armband and badges and stuff, look away and wander off. I was like, um, excuse me, you just spent five minutes staring at my chest, you could say hello... but I not say anything to them either so I suppose they could have had reasons. One guy who did say something was a tech and he asked if I was a gopher cos all the gophers seemed to have Clan Denial armbands.

Went to dealers room, got money from t shirts, spent money on all the Richie things I could find except the prominently displayed picture of him about to get his head chopped off. I not like that one at all. I had to get a Methos/Kronos picture (um, not slashy, really, just a regular production still. numbered limited edition out of 5000 it says actually). Got it because there was a special offer so five pics cost same as four and there weren't five Richie pics not including the head chopping one. Also found one key ring that was all Richie and two that were Richie on one side but Duncan on the other. Figured I could put up with that. I mean I actually quite like Duncan, just not Dunkan.

Sat in corridor near MTAS table waiting for JB Q&A number 2. JB was wandering up and down the corridor waiting for it too. That kind of annoyed me, that it took them so long to say the auction was overrunning and to come back later. Or they could have stopped the auction earlier. Anyhue, he walked right past, lots of times. He's nice.

Q&A 2. I remember even less from this one. People didn't stop talking and there were two little Kennys sitting around playing power rangers at the side. grr. A lot of the questions were repeats, about would he and the band tour and he would he be in the Raven (answers yup if they get time and money, and yes that where he going next). Someone asked about the writing, was there ever a time he really agreed with it, or was there a time he really disagreed, and he said yes quite emphatically to the disagreed. He said lots of the time he'd done that. He said for the new Raven script he got there was some bit where the first thing they did was focus on the tattoo, but his character had the tattoo removed, so he pointed that out and they fix it now. (That mess up my fanfic a bit so I remember that bit). Um... there was a bit where someone asked what he remember from when he was little and he said a story about going to a county fair and meeting this guy called elvis presley... like I said, he meet lots of good people. a lot of the time you couldn't hear the questions. or half the answer because someone's fire engine broke or something. Someone asked him about the song he did for Richie and he said how it was difficult to write because its hard to write a love song for another guy. People sort of laugh a bit at that, and he say friendship a kind of love too.

Then back to room. Then go to watch Masquerade. It okay, but the only really good people were the Horsegirls. They cool. Very good. And they won, yaay!

Then later there was another disco, which was also good and which I have more pictures of. I have lots of pictures of dark rooms and the inside of my handbag, but some that actually worked too.

Then I sleeped.

Monday it said in the online schedule they would be showing the original Highlander movie but they showed Excalibur instead. I think this was for the same reason that some people needed to be explained to why practically everyone at the disco knew all the words to Princes of the Universe. sigh again.

I was really not feeling well on Monday so if anything happened I wasn't there. I got up in time for the official farewell and stuff. They poured disgusting drink on Sparks the techs head. And there were some little animations based on the Homeland badge. Duncan Macleod get hit by lightning and goes all black with just his eyes showing. Or DM getting squashed by the weird capsule on the techs badges. Then I went back to my room. Highlander is on monday nights in scotland so I not sleep. It was Avenging Angel. rats. vaguely wondered what Richie was doing in Amsterdam. went to sleep. tuesday spent between 10am and 6pm travelling home.

Got email.

slept

woke up, got film developed, wrote this.

I know I missed out a bunch of cool stuff. Like the story about the guys giving VP funny looks in a bar. Other people will write that stuff I guess.

And I haven't said enough about all the people I met, but I cant remember hardly any names (sorry) apart from all the online friends I now RL know too. (does a con count as RL? stretches the definition a bit methinks...) Everyone was cool that I hung about with, but I think they now all know why I prefer living by email (see all the 'I ran away..' bits of report). But no one made me feel crazy for acting like that (which is rare) so I like them :-)

later

beccaelizabeth

still tired. 'sleep' at a con means something only vaguely related to actually sleeping.

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beccaelizabeth@oocities.com