rusty_halo

Comic Con looks really cool. Anyone going?

I'm considering.

Anyone who's been there before, do you have hotel recommendations?

I don't know what to say about the election. Bigotry and intolerance and hate and ignorance won. I love New York City, but I'm terrified of America right now.

I met up with saussy for coffee this morning and we hugged and commiserated. She's such a darling person. I'm glad that I'm here in this city, surrounded mainly by people who believe in freedom and choice and equality. Even if our country is ruled by people who don't want us to exist.

So anyway, I got back from London late last night. (I voted absentee, of course.) I had a wonderful time, so I'm going to try to write up a con report now. I loved the city, saw a ton of awesome sights including Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury, the Tower of London, Highgate Cemetery, Hampton Court, etc. I also spent time at both conventions, saw an awesome concert by Christian Kane and band (attended by apparently half the cast of Angel), got up onstage for an hour in front of 800 people with a panel that included Jane Espenson, saw Marsters and Boreanaz together, did my first shot ever (of Jagermeister, oh my god) and actually sort of danced.... well, it was neat.

[listening to Kerry's concession speech and I feel like I'm going to vomit.... okay, focus, London....]

( traveling to London )

( Highgate Cemetery, Covent Garden, and the Original Bus Tour )

( Hampton Court, Food for Thought, the Tower of London, the Thames )

I am not really a big Marsters or Boreanaz fan so please don't read this if you do not want to hear criticism of these actors. I am only sharing my honest personal opinion. It is not meant as any kind of insult to those who do enjoy seeing these actors.

( Saturday at the Marsters/Boreanaz convention, the British Museum, back to the convention )

( Sunday at the Marsters/Boreanaz event; being onstage in front of bright lights and approximately a gazillion people )

( The White Room )

( Stonehenge, Salisbury, Bath )

( The Kane concert, featuring one of the most gorgeous men alive, plus nearly half the cast of Angel )

Got home from DragonCon last night. It was fun, but going to two cons in a row was exhausting. Not sure if I'll want to do that again.

The Firefly guests (Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite, and Adam Baldwin) were the surprise hits of the con. Very popular, packed the Q&A and autograph rooms, and were very funny and entertaining.

I didn't do any of the Buffy stuff, as I wasn't interested. I wanted to do Harry Potter panels, but frustratingly, the few Harry Potter panels coincided with other stuff that I wanted to do more. So the only Harry Potter thing I saw was Harry Potter Jeopardy, for little kids. Well, all the HP programming was for little kids--it was the YA Track. They NEED a totally-Harry Potter track, with ADULT programming! All the HP stuff was packed, with lines, while the rest of the YA stuff was barely filled. I don't think I'll return next year if they don't have separate HP programming for grown-ups.

The best surprise for me was Rogue from the Cruxshadows. He was on two of the panels for the new Goth track and he was WONDERFUL. Brilliant and articulate and interesting and funny. One panel was specifically about the history of Goth music while the other was about the Goth subculture in general. Rogue discussed the ideology/mindstate of "Goth" going back to the Romans vs. "passionate, non-logical, individualistic" outsiders. He talked about Beethoven as the first Goth musician, Byron and Goth as "modern Romanticism," early horror films like Nosferatu, plus the development of New Wave from Punk and all the obvious stuff. He was just so interesting and thoughtful. All the discussions were really fair and open-minded--they were talking about the positives and negatives of stuff like Hot Topic and Marilyn Manson from a really balanced perspective. Lots of celebration of the diversity of the Goth movement. I wish someone had recorded those panels; they were wonderful.

The Cruxshadows themselves were awesome, of course. Unfortunately they didn't play until 2am, and we were let in at 10:30pm, plus had to wait in line to get in. Standing for four hours SUCKED. The opening band, Faith and the Muse, was terrible. Voltaire was good, but not worth standing for. My feet still hurt. But the Cruxshadows were worth it. And I got jaydk to stand up front with me, and she loved the show (even though she's so not goth and she doesn't like live music). Rogue sang to her, and autographed a CD for her, and gave her a hug. :)

I saw a kid dressed as Remus Lupin (with the scars!), and shrieked, and took his photo. There were also a bunch of Harrys floating around, and a good amount of Snapes and Hagrids. Plenty of pirates, as well--several captain Jacks, at least one Captain Hook, and a bunch of generic pirates. They also did an interactive showing of PotC, but as it was at 10am, I didn't go.

It was fun to go to the con, and good to spend time with jaydk and elizard100 and rockgoddes, plus the various other people I ran into like elfgirl and dwivian, Froggy and Jamie, April B. and Donna, poshcat and fer1213, etc....

And now, I must work, and then sleep for a very long time.

I'm heading off to Oakland in about two hours. Will return on Monday night (right in the middle of the Republican convention, so who knows whether I'll actually get back on time).

I'm looking forward to seeing bunches of you there. If anyone wants to have my cell phone number, email me at drinkthepoison -at- hotmail.com within the next two hours.

I'm going on an outing to San Francisco tomorrow morning. And I'm also going to the Common Rotation living room show in Vacaville tomorrow night. (Don't laugh!) So perhaps I'll also see people there. :)

After being imprisoned in a room full of Goth people for two nights, miggy sought revenge by turning me into a doll.

I'm enjoying reading everyone's con reports. But so sad that the con is over. I miss you guys. If anyone's ever going to be around NYC, let me know and we'll meet up.

Oh, and I'm going to be at Vulkon in Oakland (August 27-30), Dragoncon in Atlanta (September 3-6), and I'm spending a week in London for the James Marsters/David Boreanaz Halloween bash. So if anyone's going to be around any of those and wants to hang out, also let me know....

*can't stand waiting two years for another Writercon!*

Oh yeah, and if you missed it, my insanely long and rambly con report is posted here.

I still don't have my Moonlight Rising photos scanned, but I did finally post some older photos from the Creation con in New Jersey in March. The guests were Nick Brendon, Stephanie Romanov, Robia LaMorte, Iyari Limon, and Robin Atkin Downes. Photos are here.

I also have Common Rotation at the Bitter End from early this year, and Eric Kufs solo early this year.

I spent my weekend absorbed in the latest Dark Tower book. (How did I not know this came out? I walked into the bookstore this weekend and almost screamed.) I've been following this series for (what feels like) forever--I'm not actually much of a Stephen King fan, but I adore The Dark Tower.

( mild spoilers; my reaction )

Well, this was an eventful weekend.

( Friday: Graduation Party )

( Saturday: Eliza Dushku in Philadelphia )

( Sunday: Eric Kufs from Common Rotation at the Bitter End )

Me and Mary at the Saving Angel table we had at the Creation con over the weekend

I also got close-ups of the items on the table, which are here and here.

And a scan of the Saving Angel article which is on the first page of the TV section of the NY Post.

I'll scan the rest of my con photos another time.

Psst ...

Note to drujan: You must go read thedeadlyhook's LJ. You will love her perceptive commentary on the Buffyverse, particularly on Buffy. She's also the one who wrote those wonderful reviews at Just Stake Me.

Note to soulmate815: The wonderful Spike & Joyce story I was telling you about is DeNile by indri. (If anyone else out there hasn't read this one yet, go read it! It's one of my favorite stories ever.)

Yesterday I bought 20 postcards at a gift shop near me ($.35 each) and spent two hours writing notes on all of them, to various people at Fox, ME, UPN, TNT, and certain media outlets. Just need to get postcard stamps tomorrow and I'm set. Now, c'mon everyone, you too. Just pick up some postcards; you'll find addresses here among many other places.

I bought my ticket to the Creation Buffy/Angel con in Jersey in March. Looking forward to seeing rockgoddes and redeem147 and others there. :)

To do:
Figure out if I'm going to Toronto Trek or not
(If so) figure out Toronto Trek hotel room/roommate situation
(If so) get Toronto Trek plane tickets

Figure out how long I want to stay in Vegas
Reserve WriterCon hotel room
Find WriterCon roommates
Get WriterCon plane tickets

I think jaydk is going to handle our DragonCon hotel and airfare, but I must check with her about it.

I spent four hours tonight in the most boring class ever. We watched this movie that was so boring I couldn't *stand* it. I started braiding strands of my hair into little braids, and then braiding the little braids into bigger braids, because I couldn't sit still.

I forget the name of the movie; it was from 1969 and was about a psychologist who talks crazy women into having sex with him (or not) and films it all with a hidden camera. All you see is clips from the hidden camera. Mostly it's these weird women jumping around naked and screeching, and lots of really irritating pretentious selfish people talking about nothing.

Sudden change of topic...

So, let's review:

Action: Giles and Jenny start to get back together after a period of separation
Result: Jenny dies horribly

Action: Angel gets his soul back, reunites with Buffy, she tells him she loves him
Result: Angel dies horribly

Action: Joyce's romantic life starts to pick up, she gets flowers from a suitor
Result: Joyce dies

Action: Tara and Willow have a happy reunion after months of separation
Result: Tara dies horribly

Action: Buffy finally admits to Spike that she loves him
Result: Spike dies horribly

( AtS S5 spoilers )

As much as I admit that Joss Whedon's shows are some of the best on television, he's got his own formula and it's pretty damn predictable.

I also sort of wonder what this means. People start to get together romantically, and misery ensues. Is it a negative comment on romance? Sex = death?

Or is just a way to drive the knife in as deeply as possible, make it hurt extra when the person dies because we see how much promise their life had? Which is kind of disturbing on a couple of levels. First, the implication that a death isn't quite so meaningful if the person's life wasn't full of promise when the person died. Second that romantic love = your life's potential. Romance gives life meaning? Why does romance signify happiness/potential?

The only time I can remember significant death where this didn't happen was with Jonathan and Anya. (Though it's debatable whether the writers even considered Anya's death significant. And she does get back with Xander shortly before, but that's not her big poignant moment, which is her realization about humanity blah blah blah.) In their cases, we saw how much they'd grown as people, and that's what made their deaths hurt so much. I like that method better, though, because the poignance is emphasized by showing who they are and how they've grown as individuals, not just because they're romantically involved with someone.

Meh. I'm just babbling because I'm tired, and it's too much effort to go get ready for bed, and I really ought to update my website before I go to sleep ...

Speaking of which, visits to my site went *way* up this week. I guess it's the Angel cancellation publicity? *cries*

And speaking of that, there are big ads for "One Tree Hill" and "Smallville" all over my neighborhood, and all over the NYU area. No ads for "Angel," though. Gee, maybe the *lack of promotion* could have something to do with that show's comparitively smaller ratings?

And speaking of Smallville, could that show possibly be any more lame? I retract every nice thing I've said about it. The last few episodes have been like bad after school specials. I love Lex, and Lionel, but the minimal time they get is so not worth it.

Totally random topic change again...

Oh, hey, check it out. My dad sent me pictures of my babies cats. Aren't they wonderful? The white one is Vanilla, who is 18 years old and very bossy. The striped one is Angel (named before the TV character existed!) who my dad calls "Penny" and everyone else calls "The Devil Cat." She is insane. Lucifer, the youngest, isn't pictured, because he thinks he's dog and the others wouldn't deign to let him hang out with them.

( Angel and Vanilla )

We had a conversation at work the other day which reminded me what a freak I am. We're writing this book about our favorite vegan products (don't ask, it's not my idea) and we have to all write something about whatever products we like. I suggested that we all write down our ideas privately, in a database-like thing, and then we can reply to each other, sort of like LJ comments. Converse in writing. Everyone else said, no, let's just have a meeting, talk out loud, and someone can transcribe it.

That idea is horrible to me. I would do sooo much better writing on my own than talking in person. In person I'm quiet and inarticulate and totally unable to communicate well. In writing I'm so much more able to say what I mean. (Not that I'm great in writing, but much much better than in person.)

Which reminds me that my colloquium is coming up. Oh, god, panic. ( boring school stuff )

Now. Must find something to archive before bed.... Oh, I know! Doyle said I could archive her secret slasha fic. Okay ... off to archive.

Mostly for my own benefit... I'm trying to sort out which conventions I'll be attending this year.

Last year was "the year of Buffy conventions" for me. This year isn't going to be the same, but I'd still like to do some cons.

So, here's the list of cons I'm thinking about, listed chronologically. If you're going to be at one of these, let me know. :)

( Upcoming Conventions )