Post by SpikesToy on Jul 7, 2004 14:10:21 GMT
Okies, here’s the start of the memoirs! I’m not very good at this so beware!
PART ONE
Friday
Christine picked me up in a taxi NICE AND EARLY; just in case there were any dramas re the flight. I was so tired as I’d only gotten 2 hours sleep the night before! I was so hyped and had left everything until the last minute. However, I was running on pure adrenalin once we got to the airport and the tiredness vanished. Fortunately everything was okay with the tickets and we met Chris and Louise at the airport. We were of course all very excited. We arrived in Melbourne at about 11:30am and caught a taxi to our apartments. The accommodation was great. Christine and I shared one apartment and Chris and Louise another. We went out and got all the essentials that we needed (i.e. grog and a wee bit of food!) then sat down and had a few drinks and got into the groove. We then walked to the con venue which was only 5 minutes away and familiarised ourselves with the area. We had lunch by the river which was lovely. The weather had been forecasted as being wet but it was perfect, which is very unusual for Melbourne this time of year. We went back the apartments and decided that we would have a night in watching Buffy DVD’s. It was great. We snuggled up on the couches and got into the theme then sat around wondering what tomorrow would be like. To say we were pumped is an understatement! At about 11:30pm we decided to call it a night. I slept like a log and woke up at 5am Saturday.
Saturday
We had decided the night before that Christine and I would get to the con early for registration just in case there were any problems. Registration was at 9am and we arrived at 8:15am to find that we were 2nd in the queue! ;D We chatted to some lovely people whilst wiling away the time. Everyone was very hyped and it really made for a great atmosphere. At 9am sharp they let us in and I picked up our tickets. I have to say that I was surprised that we didn’t have to show ID as we had been told to provide it. It made me even happier that we went earlier because ANYONE could have picked up our tickets.
Chris and Louise arrived at 9:30am and we mooched around the merchandise tables. I bought a plate and a couple of photos and the GotR EP's but there wasn’t really anything terribly exciting there. We were given collector cards with our tickets, which was a nice touch.
Just before 10am we went into the auditorium and found our seats. Row D on the right hand side of the stage, so we had a great view.
First up was a screening of “Fool For Love.” It was great watching a Buffy ep with 600 people. Everyone oohed and aahed and laughed at the same time. It was a great start to the con.
Siobahn received a great round of applause when she came up on stage. She is a really lovely woman and a great public speaker, very in control but also very warm. In the programme we were given it mentioned To our much loved guests… James, Ghost of the Robot – Charlie, Steven, Kevin and Sean and she made a comment about GotR no longer being our much loved guests – take that as you will! Russell from BDU (bless him, he was so nervous) came on stage and told us all the rules and regulations i.e. no standing up, no rushing the stage and to only take flash photos for the first two minutes James was on stage.
The first guest speaker was Dr. Sue Turnbull who delivered her paper “Hello There, Gentle Viewers…”: Towards An Aesthetics Of Television. It was truly fascinating and I wish I could remember all that she talked about. I think one of her papers may be on the Slayage site. She spoke brilliantly and was also very amusing.
Next came the auction, which Siobahn ran. It was rather an amusing auction as people kept making comments about if certain items came with batteries! You had to be there – it was funny. The items were all the usual collectable stuff and some of it sold for whopping prices! Christine bid for a Spike plate and got it. I bid for the Harry Dresden audio books but the price just kept going up and up so I pulled out. I can get them cheaper on the net.
After the auction was a special presentation: “The Life and Un-life Of Spike aka William the Bloody aka Blondie Bear” which was a montage of various clips with Spike as the focal point. You should have heard the huge round of applause when they played the scene from “In the Dark” where Spike is standing on the rooftop doing the voice over of Angel and the girl he’s just saved. It was hilarious to hear 600 people clap spontaneously! The montage went for about twenty minutes and was brilliant – I’d love a copy of it. After the montage Siobahn came back and introduced………
JAMES!!!!! God he looked just so gorgeous and happy as he came up on stage. Everyone applauded and he said regardless of what the organisers had said, he didn’t care if we kept using flash photography throughout his appearance, so of course everyone did! Unfortunately my pics haven’t turned out too well, I am hopeless – I know what I did wrong now but didn’t realise it then Oh well, I’ll wait to see if Chris and Christine did any better.
My memory is hopeless and I can’t remember everything that was discussed and also whether it was Saturday or Sunday but I will tell you what I do remember.
I do know that people asked some very confusing questions which James didn’t understand. I felt so sorry for him but he persisted in trying to concentrate on what they were going on about and eventually was able to answer. One girl asked him about his time in Seattle and whether he got into the grunge scene. He got really emotional and started to cry and said how much he hated Courtney Love for what she said after Kurt Cobain died. He said she was a really ugly person.
He also did his political rant about America and then commented that his manager would kill him – again! He got very emotional when someone came up and commented on the “Seeing Red” episode. She’d had the question cleared by the organisers and she told James that the episode had helped a lot of rape victims forgive their attackers. He seemed very surprised by this. He mentioned that he had found the episode very hard to do and that everyone was fussing around Sarah, asking her if she was okay but no-one asked him if it was affecting him mentally.
Someone asked him about his music, then hesitated. He said it was okay to ask him anything. I think he was expecting them to broach the GotR subject but they didn’t. He asked if anyone had a guitar but no-one did
He did a fabulous Britney Spears impersonation. LMAO! ;D He was wiggling his hips around the stage and singing in a high voice. I get the feeling he doesn’t like her much Someone asked him to do an Aussie accent but he said he couldn’t because it would eventually revert into his Spike voice. Another hilarious question was from a guy who asked James if he ever slipped into 'Spike' to pick up girls, if the James thing didn’t work. He then said that HIS girlfriend asked him to speak in an English accent whilst they were having sex, and that she wanted him to bleach his hair! James couldn’t stop laughing! He said no, that if he 'has it all the way in' and he’s 'almost to the end' and a girl asks him to do the accent, then his dick just flops and its all over! James then said that all the guys in the audience must be so secure in their manhood and VERY well hung, because if he had a girl who wanted him to attend a con like this he wouldn't do it. The guy then asked the audience which girls have sex, with their Spike tapes playing in the video! James looked as if he could die! He was so embarrassed. It really was hilarious.
He mentioned raising a seven year old girl (which I presume is his niece) and how much he loves the Care Bears. One girl traded line from MacBeth with him. He seemed to want that conversation to continue forever. He was thoroughly enjoying himself. Another girl got up and asked him to sing with her and launched straight into the Spike/Buffy singing to each other at the end of OMWF! She was very good but James couldn’t remember the words! He told her she had more courage than him to do that.
If I remember any more questions I will add them in the Sunday report. James did say that Australian’s asked the best questions but he probably says that about every country he visits!
More to come later……..
PART ONE
Friday
Christine picked me up in a taxi NICE AND EARLY; just in case there were any dramas re the flight. I was so tired as I’d only gotten 2 hours sleep the night before! I was so hyped and had left everything until the last minute. However, I was running on pure adrenalin once we got to the airport and the tiredness vanished. Fortunately everything was okay with the tickets and we met Chris and Louise at the airport. We were of course all very excited. We arrived in Melbourne at about 11:30am and caught a taxi to our apartments. The accommodation was great. Christine and I shared one apartment and Chris and Louise another. We went out and got all the essentials that we needed (i.e. grog and a wee bit of food!) then sat down and had a few drinks and got into the groove. We then walked to the con venue which was only 5 minutes away and familiarised ourselves with the area. We had lunch by the river which was lovely. The weather had been forecasted as being wet but it was perfect, which is very unusual for Melbourne this time of year. We went back the apartments and decided that we would have a night in watching Buffy DVD’s. It was great. We snuggled up on the couches and got into the theme then sat around wondering what tomorrow would be like. To say we were pumped is an understatement! At about 11:30pm we decided to call it a night. I slept like a log and woke up at 5am Saturday.
Saturday
We had decided the night before that Christine and I would get to the con early for registration just in case there were any problems. Registration was at 9am and we arrived at 8:15am to find that we were 2nd in the queue! ;D We chatted to some lovely people whilst wiling away the time. Everyone was very hyped and it really made for a great atmosphere. At 9am sharp they let us in and I picked up our tickets. I have to say that I was surprised that we didn’t have to show ID as we had been told to provide it. It made me even happier that we went earlier because ANYONE could have picked up our tickets.
Chris and Louise arrived at 9:30am and we mooched around the merchandise tables. I bought a plate and a couple of photos and the GotR EP's but there wasn’t really anything terribly exciting there. We were given collector cards with our tickets, which was a nice touch.
Just before 10am we went into the auditorium and found our seats. Row D on the right hand side of the stage, so we had a great view.
First up was a screening of “Fool For Love.” It was great watching a Buffy ep with 600 people. Everyone oohed and aahed and laughed at the same time. It was a great start to the con.
Siobahn received a great round of applause when she came up on stage. She is a really lovely woman and a great public speaker, very in control but also very warm. In the programme we were given it mentioned To our much loved guests… James, Ghost of the Robot – Charlie, Steven, Kevin and Sean and she made a comment about GotR no longer being our much loved guests – take that as you will! Russell from BDU (bless him, he was so nervous) came on stage and told us all the rules and regulations i.e. no standing up, no rushing the stage and to only take flash photos for the first two minutes James was on stage.
The first guest speaker was Dr. Sue Turnbull who delivered her paper “Hello There, Gentle Viewers…”: Towards An Aesthetics Of Television. It was truly fascinating and I wish I could remember all that she talked about. I think one of her papers may be on the Slayage site. She spoke brilliantly and was also very amusing.
Next came the auction, which Siobahn ran. It was rather an amusing auction as people kept making comments about if certain items came with batteries! You had to be there – it was funny. The items were all the usual collectable stuff and some of it sold for whopping prices! Christine bid for a Spike plate and got it. I bid for the Harry Dresden audio books but the price just kept going up and up so I pulled out. I can get them cheaper on the net.
After the auction was a special presentation: “The Life and Un-life Of Spike aka William the Bloody aka Blondie Bear” which was a montage of various clips with Spike as the focal point. You should have heard the huge round of applause when they played the scene from “In the Dark” where Spike is standing on the rooftop doing the voice over of Angel and the girl he’s just saved. It was hilarious to hear 600 people clap spontaneously! The montage went for about twenty minutes and was brilliant – I’d love a copy of it. After the montage Siobahn came back and introduced………
JAMES!!!!! God he looked just so gorgeous and happy as he came up on stage. Everyone applauded and he said regardless of what the organisers had said, he didn’t care if we kept using flash photography throughout his appearance, so of course everyone did! Unfortunately my pics haven’t turned out too well, I am hopeless – I know what I did wrong now but didn’t realise it then Oh well, I’ll wait to see if Chris and Christine did any better.
My memory is hopeless and I can’t remember everything that was discussed and also whether it was Saturday or Sunday but I will tell you what I do remember.
I do know that people asked some very confusing questions which James didn’t understand. I felt so sorry for him but he persisted in trying to concentrate on what they were going on about and eventually was able to answer. One girl asked him about his time in Seattle and whether he got into the grunge scene. He got really emotional and started to cry and said how much he hated Courtney Love for what she said after Kurt Cobain died. He said she was a really ugly person.
He also did his political rant about America and then commented that his manager would kill him – again! He got very emotional when someone came up and commented on the “Seeing Red” episode. She’d had the question cleared by the organisers and she told James that the episode had helped a lot of rape victims forgive their attackers. He seemed very surprised by this. He mentioned that he had found the episode very hard to do and that everyone was fussing around Sarah, asking her if she was okay but no-one asked him if it was affecting him mentally.
Someone asked him about his music, then hesitated. He said it was okay to ask him anything. I think he was expecting them to broach the GotR subject but they didn’t. He asked if anyone had a guitar but no-one did
He did a fabulous Britney Spears impersonation. LMAO! ;D He was wiggling his hips around the stage and singing in a high voice. I get the feeling he doesn’t like her much Someone asked him to do an Aussie accent but he said he couldn’t because it would eventually revert into his Spike voice. Another hilarious question was from a guy who asked James if he ever slipped into 'Spike' to pick up girls, if the James thing didn’t work. He then said that HIS girlfriend asked him to speak in an English accent whilst they were having sex, and that she wanted him to bleach his hair! James couldn’t stop laughing! He said no, that if he 'has it all the way in' and he’s 'almost to the end' and a girl asks him to do the accent, then his dick just flops and its all over! James then said that all the guys in the audience must be so secure in their manhood and VERY well hung, because if he had a girl who wanted him to attend a con like this he wouldn't do it. The guy then asked the audience which girls have sex, with their Spike tapes playing in the video! James looked as if he could die! He was so embarrassed. It really was hilarious.
He mentioned raising a seven year old girl (which I presume is his niece) and how much he loves the Care Bears. One girl traded line from MacBeth with him. He seemed to want that conversation to continue forever. He was thoroughly enjoying himself. Another girl got up and asked him to sing with her and launched straight into the Spike/Buffy singing to each other at the end of OMWF! She was very good but James couldn’t remember the words! He told her she had more courage than him to do that.
If I remember any more questions I will add them in the Sunday report. James did say that Australian’s asked the best questions but he probably says that about every country he visits!
More to come later……..