Monday, December 15th, 2003
The opening ceremonies were scheduled to start at 9:30 that morning but it ended up being delayed by a 1/2 hour because so many people will still waiting in line. Even with the delay the ballroom where it was, was still not very full. Our line had been short, since one day sales had a separate line and our wait was probably less than 5 minutes. The opening ceremonies was several coreographed scenes with music from the movies, including a fight scene. I'd hoped for better pictures, but the lighting was too dark. Cliff Broadway (Quickbeam from TORn) was the MC as some of you probably heard.I had planned to get autographs from Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson, but the lines were huge once the opening ceremonies were over (apparently some people had the smart idea to skip the opening and just line up). I decided not to, since I didn't want to spend a lot of time just waiting around. Plus it was about $10 per autograph I think.
I found a group of the loons in the transportation pass line, so I waited for them and we went to look at the vendors. There was lots of cool stuff there, but I didn't have much cash on me (probably $5) so I didn't buy anything. I did pick up a free Return of the King poster with Aragorn on it though (it's now hanging in my room!).
At noon there was a Q&A session with Craig and Mark, so after eating lunch, my dad and I went there. It was about half full by the time we got there, so our seats weren't too close to the stage. I found RB, Jenn and Jenn's friend there, so we sat with them. The Q&A was good, I just wish it could have been longer, since they cut them off right at one hour. They answered questions about foaming fangirls, which race they would have been besides an elf (apparently all of the races have disfunctional families), Craig's favourite line as Haldir and several people made requests. There was the usual hug requests from a few people. One person asked them to sing something. Craig said that it wasn't the elves from the Third Age (aka him) that sang, it was the ones from the First Age (aka Mark). Mark decided that because he was a king, it was Craig who should be singing, since he was only a prince. In the end neither of them sang, but it was still funny to hear them argue which of them should. Craig said a few lines in Elvish (one about Aragorn from when they are in Lothlorien, and translated it to something like "Aragorn, don't distract me when we's fighting now" and I can't remember what the other one was). Craig tried to blame his death on Aragorn, saying it was all going well until Aragorn distracted him, then BAM! he died. Later he said it was because they were having pork chops for lunch that day and he was in a hurry to get some, so he pushed a person out of the way saying he thought it was just some extra, and it turned out to be Peter Jackson. So after lunch when they got script revisions, it was marked in crayon "Haldir DIES! I don't care how you do it, just kill him!" There was also a question about why they decided to audition for Lord of the Rings and Craig's (joking) reply was "the catering". Craig was presented with a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey which was fitting since they had been discussing the Leafs/Rangers game when they started the Q&A. Craig and Mark had gone to see the Saturday night game at the ACC (and I was watching it on TV... if I'd have known they were there it's a safe bet I would have been watching the audience, not the ice). They were joking about this guy who kept yelling insults at Messier and how he must have spent the whole week coming up with those. Craig commented that suddenly during the game, the players stopped fighting and started chasing this little round disc (aka a hockey puck), while looking around like he was confused.
I also saw Tolkien Jeopardy. After some technical difficulties, they got going a bit later than planned (it'll always be when they actually go to play the game that stuff happens, of course!) Quickbeam was Alex Trebec and they had a panel of judges (that eventually began to keep score by hand). The majority of the questions were very hard, and I think I maybe got two right out of.... however many there were. Basically, I would have not won, hehe! I think a lot were from the Silmarillion or other Tolkien works I have not read/finished. It was still good, and I managed to get a few pictures, though a tad blurry.
That night was Looniepalooza at Alice Fazoolis. It figures that as we were walking by the cinema close to the hotel, the Return of the King trailer was being played on the screen outside. Being the loons we are, naturally we all started cheering (with the occasional squee) while scaring the people that aren't Lord of the Rings obsessed. Fun times. We also spotted a large Return of the King poster, and had to squee at that as well :D
Afterthoughts: I soooo cannot wait until the next Gathering in 2005!!! Even heading home that night, I could hardly believe it was already over after having waited so long for it (probably over a year). It was just so great and now I get to be one of those people with the pictures and reports, instead of looking at other people's and wishing I was there :D
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