This report is the property of the author and may not be copied or reposted, in full or in part, without the author's prior permission.Saturday 1st MayAs we were making our own ways to the con this morning, I decided I was going to walk it. Originally I had thought that was what I would do each day before I discovered the train, so thought I should do it once. I came out of the hotel and the first thing I saw was a full sized tree stuffed in a shop doorway! All the trees in the streets had been decorated with coloured ribbons and this one was no exception but for one thing - it was horizontal and no longer attached to its roots!
It was very quiet out – scarcely a soul about and very little traffic for a major city even though it was Saturday morning - because it was a public holiday. It was about 3 miles to the Maritim Hotel and all down one long straight road, so it was easy to follow and it was flat all the way. Not very exciting to walk, but I was glad I had done it once, though would have been absolutely knackered if I had had to walk back again at the end of the day…!
I found Katrin, Sylvie and Astrid almost immediately and they told me that James’s photo session was still at 5pm so I could relax a bit. Though the way they did it – you paid for your photo ops on the way in to the room and if you hadn’t got there by the time the session ended there was a danger of being cut off – so we decided we would start the queue nice and early to make sure!
The con was more crowded today with more people in costumes - mostly Star Trek but a good smattering of others – someone was dressed as the
and there were 3 ladies done up purrrfectly (sorry – couldn’t resist!) as the cat-nuns from the Doctor Who episode ‘New Earth’.
We had another look round the dealer rooms (and I still didn’t buy anything!) but I did acquire two plastic Star Wars guns that one comic dealer was giving away as freebies for use in my photo op later. I had been wondering how to get hold of something suitable and these were perfect for what I wanted (all will be revealed in a bit) Then we all plonked down in some handy chairs by the Paramount sponsors area and watched the con go by – lots to see and people to talk to. Met Cecelia from Sweden and Cinsia from Italy among others and just generally chilled out until it was time for the autograph session. FedCon only had a Saturday session from 1-4pm and Sunday 10-1pm for guests to sign, it wasn’t like there were tables for them all the weekend.
Most of the guests were in the small auditorium (known as the Holodeck) for this, with five more being upstairs in the wide corridor leading to the main auditorium. James, as I’ve mentioned, was upstairs too, but in his own corner on the mezzanine floor, along from the photo op room. VIP ticket holders got to go early before the masses, but then of course they were calling it by ticket numbers so with us all being around the 1500 mark or higher, realised we wouldn’t have a chance until the following day. I was a bit pissed about this, since James was the only guest I was interested in, but when we got up there, it turned out that his queue was open and anyone could go through when they liked, so I didn’t need to worry. Katrin and Sylvie did want a few other guests’ autographs, but were resigned to waiting. (Not sure how they worked it with people on day passes!)
James was at his table on the far side, wearing a black t-shirt and looking as gorgeous as ever. There was a small crowd of people taking pictures on the other side from the queue, so I immediately went to join in – as taking photos of James is my favourite pastime! Unfortunately, the lighting there was rubbish, very dark and shadowy and the steward was stopping us from using flash. My camera can cope with low light so I did take a load, but nothing special. The steward was getting crosser and crosser as he had to keep moving people out of the way of the exit and repeating himself about the flash photography.
I went and joined the queue to get my first autograph – I had one of the photos I had taken at Valentines (where I had photo-shopped his missing tooth back in!) to be signed as James wasn’t personalising. Sky was behind me in the queue as she wanted to take a picture of James with the t-shirt I was giving him as a gift.
The queue moved fairly swiftly, I said “Hi” to Steve and gave him his usual present of dark chocolate which he was very pleased with as he was in the process of scoffing the last piece of another bar, and then there was James, shaking my hand and grinning up at me “Hey Rosie – good to see you again, baby”
You can hear the smile in my voice as I replied “Hi darlin’, how you doing?”
James glanced at the picture but didn’t remark on it as he started to sign and replied “I’m doing good – I actually got some sleep last night...” as the signature was finished and he looked up “…I watched ‘The Proposal’ last night with Sandra Bullock – such a hoot! Really good movie!”
He was shaking the pen as it wasn’t working as well as he liked and I said I had a gift for him and that Sky wanted to take a picture as he unfolded the t-shirt. He pointed at Sky next to me in the line and said “Go for it!” and then unfolded the t-shirt. It was black and said “I Do All My Own Stunts” with a picture of a guy on fire. There was a moments silence and then James laughed – a proper full-on big James-laugh as he saw what it said. He dropped his hands down on the table and still laughing, reached to shake my hand as he said “Thank you babe, thank you very much!”
He had been so quick that Sky didn’t get a picture, but then couldn’t hold the shirt up as he said “I can’t pose – can’t – sorry!” with real regret, which was fair enough, so I just said “No problem. I’ll see you at the photos later anyway” and we shook hands again as James grinned and said “You got it” and then I had to walk away, but I was grinning my head off as I always am after a James encounter!
Quickly tucking my photo away, I joined the photographic ranks again, taking pictures around the cross steward! At one point, there was a lull in the queue and James leaning forward on his arms, glanced round at the crowd. He caught my eye, his face broke into a grin and then he wiggled his eyebrows at me in acknowledgement! All I could do was laugh back at him with delight – it was so lovely.
We had to get a photo of our international group of James fans, so we accosted some poor guy to do the honours – and then of course everybody wanted one on their camera! There was much posing and trying to look hard, which was hilarious, but the photos were great!
I was going to go back and join the photographers again, but about now, the stroppy steward decided that enough was enough and they made everybody move right back and away so you couldn’t get close at all. I tried doing a long shot across the mezzanine floor from the other side but in that light, there was no chance. I planned to have a second autograph as well, so left it until nearer the end of the session time before joining the queue again. This time I had the cover from the Dragonball Evolution DVD for James to sign and now it seemed he was personalising, which was fine with me!
I didn’t get the video working for this one so I have to remember it. James seemed a little bit tired by now, but I still got the grin and a “Hey Rosie” as we shook hands. He didn’t remark on the DVD cover, but was trying to work out where to sign it! I said I wanted to tell him how good he was in Caprica – utterly fabulous! So wonderfully evil – and that he scared me, which made him laugh. He said he thought that Barnabas had had a hard life so he played him hard.
That was about it really, but as we shook hands I said “Its so great to see you again” and the handshake turned into a sort of hand clasp from both of us – we both squeezed the other’s hand and James gave me The Look™ and held on a little longer and then kept on looking at me as I started to move away. I love it when he does that –just makes you feel really special because at that moment he only has eyes for you!
We decided it was time to go and start the photo queue now as it was around 3 o clock and we wanted to make sure of our places. We spoke to the people in charge of the photos and I asked where we could start to line up so we wouldn’t get in the way. (They didn’t have any photo sessions running whilst they were doing autographs, so James was the first session to start back again) I had to write on a piece of paper “End of Queue – James Marsters!” But then it turned out there was 2 people waiting already in the corner so we joined them and plonked ourselves down in a line along the wall – there was another corridor running parallel behind the mezzanine which I didn’t know was there so the queue formed down that.
So it was waiting in line again, but I never mind. Katrin went off to a panel and we all just sat and talked. There was some being very silly with my guns – Sylvie and I re-enacted the end of the bar fight from Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang holding guns to each others heads and a bit of prancing about – mostly Sylvie doing what became known as the FedCon dance which she did every time she was feeling happy – so she did it a lot!! (I can’t describe it – she will have to demonstrate!) The lady at the front of the queue got given a proper printed sign to hold – and although James’s name was spelt right – someone had crossed out the R in Marsters! I had to get a picture of that – and so then the lady filled the R back in and wrote “with an R” above it – which made for a great picture!
I wandered out for a look to see how the line was doing at around 4pm – it was down the corridor, round the corner and starting to make its way across the mezzanine. And when I checked again later still it was across the mezzanine, doubling back on itself and was about to start snaking down the stairs!
We heard James arriving and I peered round the corner to see him as we were all standing up now – he saw the corrected sign, grinned and nodded in its direction. Patricia was with him – I had thought she would be, but this was the first time I’d seen her.
These turned out to be the fastest photo ops I’ve ever done. It was a fixed camera, so all the pictures were done from the same distance (far too far away!) and they just pushed you through fast. James seemed a bit stressed as there was scarcely any time to say Hi. I was getting one picture with a sign for Magie and then 3 of my own and I realised there was going to be no chance of doing anything much different. My turn, I walked forward and said Hi and James said “hey Rosie” and held out his hand. As I shook it, I said “Hug?” and he replied “No…I can’t. Sorry - I’m actually trying to keep the lid on it a bit”, which was fair enough in the situation. So I handed him the sign and he stuck that bottom lip out a bit in pout for Magie’s pic, then handed me the sign back which I had to hastily put on the floor with the guns. I wasn’t going to ask for anything different with my three, so the first was just us side by side. There was scarcely anytime for a word as James went behind me for the next shot. I really don’t like that pose I’ve decided, because it makes me tip my head back and then bring my chin down so all you can see is big fat double chin! And for every pose the photographer was calling “Big smile!” which was really annoying especially if you were trying to look sultry! For the last shot I had to whirl round and grab the guns off the floor – handed one to James and said “Shoot the camera?” and he knew exactly what I meant. It was a great pose that someone had done with him in Australia and I really wanted to do it too.
Luckily we were standing the right way round so I was using my right hand and James his left. This was about as close as I got to a hug, as James pulled me in fairly close and we had our free hands round each other and pointed the guns straight at the camera. It came out pretty well, with both of us looking like we meant business and with neither of our faces blocked! And that was it – just time to say thank you and then I was being ushered out. So damn quick – whole thing probably took less than 30 seconds!
The others were not far behind me and so we compared notes and decided we were going to get the jpegs of the pictures – then there could be severe editing!
Katrin’s excellent James radar paid off again a bit later as we happened to be standing at the top of the stairs in the same place as before when James came out of the photo ops with Patricia and walked past us. I grinned (as I always do when I see him, it’s an involuntary response!) and James said “Hi” and raised his eyebrows at me as they went past.
We all split up again then as people were doing various different things – other photos or panels – so I went outside by the fountain for a bit of fresh air and to write up some notes. Whilst I was there I saw a young girl wearing a t shirt saying “I (heart) James Marsters” and she seemed to be on her own, so I went to talk to her, the t-shirt being an easy starting point. She was called Sarah, she was German and it was her first time meeting James, though she had been a fan for years. She was having to leave shortly - was just waiting to collect her photograph - she had just been at the con for the two days as she was still in school. She was delighted to find someone who understood about the whole James thing and we had a lovely half hour or so talking about our favourite subject!
We were joined by a few other people I knew and then Astrid came out to join us as well, and as it seemed they were all going to talk in German, I decided to go and get a drink. I went into the bar rather than the counter in the foyer - and there was Steve, Lisa and Helen all propping up the bar. So I bought them all a drink – well, Lisa declined as she was minding Gareth and had to go and be with him in his photo session in a short while. I stayed and chatted – Steve was asking me what I thought of the con generally from my side (“Our correspondent in Bonn”) - lack of signage and information was the main problem – and how difficult was it to find James for autographs. I was explaining about all the coloured arrows going in different directions on the programme and how it did have an English translation but not all the info was there. Helen asked if it was easier to find than Cherry Hill (Philadelphia) - yes it was, because nothing will
ever equal Cherry Hill and them hiding James in a room that looked like a cupboard up a narrow staircase and then down around a very narrow corridor!
I was so long chatting that Astrid had to come and find me to give me my bag, and then Sarah came in excitedly with her photo to show me, closely followed by Katrin, so I showed Steve how the pictures were coming out – he wasn’t that impressed but said it was a great layout for signing!
The JM crew left around then and Katrin and I had another drink whilst we waited for Sylvie – then I just had to collect my pictures and we could make our way back into Bonn at a much more reasonable time! As ever the train was wonderfully quick and easy and got us back in no time. We hunted about for somewhere to eat as there didn’t seem to be as many restaurants open because of the holiday, but we did get in to one which was good food at a good price (yummy spaghetti carbonara for me!) and I had fun trying to translate the menu again. We were all a bit quieter as we getting tired now, but it was still fun. It was raining when we came out and had got colder so we all hurried back to our various hotels. As I had to change to the same hotel that Sylvie and Katrin were in for the last night (as I had changed my flight to Monday and then couldn’t get my hotel for the extra night) we arranged to meet there so I could drop off my bags before we travelled back to the Maritim for the final day.