And now - here's the first part of the Rosie Ramble for Fangoria!
Rosie Goes to See James at Fangoria, New York – June 2009Friday 5th JulyAnother James adventure – sure been a lot this year! I was trying to sneak out of Jenny’s flat quietly so not to wake her as it was about 6.20am, but failed miserably when the steam from the shower set off the smoke alarm!! The only way to stop it was to yank the battery out, which Jenny did with much fury and then hurled both it and the smoke alarm across the lounge with great force before stomping back to bed. Oops! (I did apologise later – a lot!)
My taxi was on time and it was no trouble getting to Terminal 4. I was doing hand baggage only so didn’t have to anything other than check in on the kiosk. T4 is having a huge amount of work done, so there’s very few flights going in or out of it – counted 25 flights for the whole day, about 1 an hour! - it was like a ghost town – hardly anyone around. No queue for breakfast though and no one in the shops.
Flight was on time and passed the way flights do – I read an entire book (the new Lee Child, which was excellent and made even more fun as it was set entirely in New York and action at one point was on W 34th street – I was going to be staying in W 36th street!) Arrived at Newark on time to find it was raining. A LOT! In fact it was pissing down! So that proved that James had to be around then…!
Zoomed through Immigration – I swear I’ve been so many times now, they know me! – I only had to do my right hand fingers on the thing and have my photo taken. Having done the trip to NY from Newark a couple of times before, I was able to go straight to the air train and then the normal train and into New York Penn station. My hotel was about 3 blocks up and 4 blocks across – and it was still raining. I got totally soaked walking as I hadn’t bothered to bring any kind of jacket with me. But I found it OK – jaywalked across the street as I was too wet to care and tumbled in the door!
Jacqui was already there – we had a nice room – very small with 2 double beds in, but very quiet for a New York hotel – I wasn’t disturbed all weekend by any outside noise. Comfy too – and only a block and a half walk to the Javits Centre.
I had rung Kelly and found that she, Tyra and Amy Sue and her mom were in the Russian Tea Rooms having had lunch. Now I really wanted to go there and so did Jacqui – so we got a taxi and did so. And it was perfect as we arrived at tea time (about 3.30ish) – after all – one should take tea at the Russian Tea Rooms! It was a set price and it cost an arm and a leg – but it was well worth it! Very luxurious setting – lots of red and gold. Tea served in a proper white china pot and drunk from a glass with a silver holder and no milk (the way I like it!) A three-tiered cake stand each arrived – that was the first course of 7 different sandwiches which were all on different breads – and 2 blinis with caviar. I have never had caviar, so as I will always try anything new, I ate them – and discovered unfortunately I like caviar – as if I needed another expensive habit! Second course was scones and cup cakes and petit fours. It didn’t seem much but I was nicely full – Jacqui couldn’t finish hers! It was lovely – a great experience!
Then we tried to get a taxi back to the hotel and then to the Javits but as it was still pissing down and it was Friday evening, there just were not any cabs – even the doorman (long red coat, top hat!) of the tea rooms couldn’t get one with his whistle! In the end he got us a town car which cost more, but there was no way Jacqui could walk very far. Had a very nice (and very pretty!) Moroccan driver who took us to the hotel for me to grab my bag (and the traffic was awful – part of the Lincoln tunnel under the river was closed for some reason, so the street with our hotel in was actually closed to traffic) and then he whipped us down to the Javits.
Fangoria was downstairs in the special events hall – the Javits centre is another HUGE conference centre – nothing like as big as the Orlando one though – and Fangoria was only one little part of it. We found we couldn’t register as we just had preferred day tickets, so had to register on the actual day. But I was able to buy my photo ops and autographs. And meet up with Amy-Sue and Mom and Kelly and generally suss out the lie of the land.
As we couldn’t actually go in to the convention and I was feeling the effects of jet lag, (and neither of us had cocktail party tickets) we went back to the hotel. And had an extra special treat! Jacqui had brought a DVD of High Plains Invaders – so we watched it on my laptop! Yay! I wasn’t expecting to see it so soon so that was great. I loved it – for a totally wacky sounding story, it worked very well – all grey and muddy and bleak. James was fabulous of course – but so were the other actors apart from the annoying female bounty hunter (who was unfortunately called Rose!) – her accent was a bit much and you were just willing her to be killed off soon…! But stubbly cowboy Sam was wonderful!
Saturday 6th JuneBoth of us were awake early – me because of being on UK time and Jacqui because she always does. So we headed out for breakfast – went to the nearest McDonalds (I always seem to end up in a McD’s at some point on James weekends!) and then back to the hotel for a quick beautify (clean teeth!) and then off to the Javits. No rain today – sunshine and quite high temperatures promised
Turned out that they weren’t doing tickets until 10 o’ clock when the con opened – we stood in the queue for half an hour with Jacqui fretting like mad that we might miss the photo ops. In fact once they started giving out wristbands, we shot through no problem and then went straight to the photo op queue which was in a room just outside the main con entrance. James was late anyway, so there were no problems. I saw Steve across the vast hallway and there was James alongside him. I took one look and then bent over, groaning “I don’t believe it!! He’s wearing that navy shirt again!” And he was! And the grey trousers and the grey trainers – that’s the fourth time in a row he’s worn them! (Mind you, suppose I can’t say much – I was wearing the same thing I wore at FX and at Elf Fair!) He was also wearing the black coat that doubled as his Spike coat at Marstersclass. They came over to go into the photo op room and passed through the queue right by us, so we said “Good morning James” – but Kelly said “James – you really need to change your shirt!” He grinned and kept walking, hands in his coat pockets and replied very definitely “Nooo I don’t!”
“Yes you do!” Kelly persisted. “Nooo, I don’t!” replied James again, still grinning and then he turned and rocked back on one foot as he added “No I don’t – cos I’m famous!” before walking into the photo op room!
We all cracked up laughing – it was hilarious! Kelly was only teasing anyway and he took it in the spirit it was meant. We then watched as he got ready for the photos – and he was bouncing on his toes practically. His hair was damp – I assume where he had just shoved water on it to try and control his curls in a hurry as he was late! – as it dried out during the morning.
It was lovely watching other peoples poses – James seemed to be up for anything that was suggested and there was no feeling of being hurried – he was stopping to talk to people too and Chris the photographer was happy to wait. Amy Sue’s picture was hilarious – her and James being scolded by her mom – James’s bottom lip was sticking out a mile in a pout! David the security guard was at the head of the line keeping an eye – he was a very nice man – fun and friendly (not like the scary bald one at Collectormania!) so Kelly and I had a bit of a laugh with him – and then it was my turn.
I stepped towards James, grinning from ear to ear as usual and saying “Hi James!” whilst I held my arms out and he took my cue and grabbed me in a huge hug as he said “Hi sweetheart” It was lovely, the best kind of hug, a full-on James squeeze!
I was saying I was sorry I couldn’t get to the party - the tickets had gone on sale at 1.30am UK time so I didn’t get a chance and he said he was sorry too.
He went to go for the first pose - I asked if we could do the English Attitude (being English!) one with us both flipping the V’s at the camera – like he and Stephen did in London – so arms round each other, we did!
Second pose, I asked for a close up profile type shot – so we got all snugly,
face to face and I got to stare into those gorgeous gorgeous eyes. James has one arm over my shoulder and the other elbow resting on my shoulder with his hand up over my head and into my hair. His look is so intense when he does that – and so open. At that moment, he means it, and I, being no kind of actor and always wearing my emotions on my face, meant it too! Lovely picture – our noses are almost touching!
As we broke away, James said – “I looked really mean then” and giggled as he bounced from one foot to the other - but he doesn’t at all!
Third pose I wanted was one I wasn’t sure if he would do - I asked “Can we do one where you’re kneeling down, pleading with me and I’ll just look at you, very unimpressed?”
James seemed a bit reluctant to do it, he was prevaricating a bit – he said something like “Only if you double up” ( I assume meaning it would cost me double) but straight away he grinned and added “only kidding” and kind of nudged me with one elbow.
I wasn’t really concentrating as I was captivated by his face. Every time I see him, I am always totally mesmerised looking at him - he is so beautiful close up, far far more beautiful than any still picture can ever capture – it can’t show the animation and tiny nuances and expressions that flicker across his face. I don’t just mean physical beauty; it’s what comes from within. And those eyes! Nothing can capture those eyes – it’s only when he is looking at you does the full effect hit you – and it makes me catch my breath every time.
Then he said, like he was confirming what I wanted “So I’ll kneel, and you look like you don’t give a shit!” He got down (though in fact he isn’t kneeling, he’s crouching with one leg under him) and put both hands together in a pleading pose and looked up at me with an imploring expression in these incredible puppy-dog eyes – I’m standing with my weight hitched back on one hip, my arms folded and my head tipped back, looking down on James with a “You’ll have to do better than that” look on my face. I was looking him right in the eye and it was hard to hold my expression as he looked so forlorn down there! As soon as Chris took the picture we both burst out laughing and James jumped to his feet and said “You don’t know how hard that was for me. You don’t know how hard that was. You don’t know what’s going on in my personal life right now!”
I was kind of taken aback – what do you say to that except – “I’m sorry!” which I did! And he said again “you don’t know what’s going on in my life” but he meant it as in how could I know? - it wasn’t my fault. But then he added he wanted to be free and give us what we wanted, and he could as nobody had grabbed him yet!
We then just automatically hugged each other
– not a great big squeezy one, and not a polite little one either – just a lovely James hug! I said “I’ll see you in a bit” and I was smiling at him (I cant do anything else around him!) and in return I got one of those beautiful, glorious smiles that are like the sun coming out as he murmured something like “Good to see you, love” and he just took hold of my hand and squeezed it briefly as I started to walk away.
As usual I had to immediately go and write down everything that was said – I sat by the nearest pillar and made hasty scribbled notes in my notebook and ws joined by Kelly doing the same. She was able to tell me some of what James had said to me – I was still a bit stunned about the personal life comment – and we speculated a bit about what he meant. He came across as very bouncy and happy, but when I think about it, there was a kind of edge to him – he just seemed slightly brittle.
James was going to be signing after the photos had finished and since it was going to be a while, we went and checked out seats in the theatre bit, which was just curtained off from the rest of the hall. As we suspected – right out on the ends – miles away from the huge stage. Sitting where I was on the left was practically in Staten Island and Kelly over the other side was in Queens. My concert seat was right there on the side too and since I had a $50 one and so did everybody else and we were all seated on the edges, we wondered who had the centre seats!
We went back to join the autograph queue and once James came out to sit at his table; I kept leaving the queue to take pictures of course. James was seated opposite a flight of stairs and on the corner of an aisle so it wasn’t too difficult to get pictures – just had to try not to block the walkway. I tried going up the stairs and taking shots which worked quite well, especially if whoever was talking with him crouched down. My camera didn’t seem to like the glow coming from white tablecloth that was on the signing table, so they weren’t the greatest photos ever. But as usual it was great just watching James interact with everybody – the smile and handshake, the totally attention he gave each person. I could watch him all day!
The queue moved slowly but it was no hardship to wait as usual. For the first autograph I had the purple scarf that I had given to James to wipe himself down with at the 100 Club gig in London, and he was personalising, which was great. I also had the picture of Steve’s butt that I had taken at the Elf Fair and I was going to ask Steve to sign that!
And you would think I would have learnt by now wouldn’t you about checking that I had pressed ‘record’ on the camera, with the number of times lately I have forgotten? I decided to use the big camera this time and I made sure I pressed the button. Unfortunately I forgot that on that camera ‘record’ has a separate button from photographs…! James Fog strikes big time! So yet again, I failed to video my first conversation with James (gives self severe arse-kicking
)
I got up to Steve and he asked for my name for the personalisation and I just looked at him and said “Steve, you know my name!” so he explained “yeah, but I need to know the spelling – I mean I wrote down Magie just now and of course she spells it with one G” so I let him off. I gave him the scarf and told him what it was and we folded carefully so the right bit was showing for signing. Then I showed him the picture and said I wanted him to sign it – his eyebrows went up and he said “I’ll get James to sign it” – to which I replied “no – I want you too!”
And then it was my turn with James – Steve passed him the scarf and then showed him the picture of his butt and said “Look what I have to put up with for you!” and James laughed and said “its cos you have a nice butt!”
I got my handshake and “hello love” (always makes me go gooey!) and then James went to sign the scarf as I told him it was the one I had given him at the 100 Club to wipe down with. As he was personalising it – with Bite Me - he laughed and said “I’m not really sweating right now or I’d give you some more!” So I couldn’t resist asking “yeah, I wondered about that – can I bring it back again and get you to top it up on a regular basis??” which made him laugh, and then he said “hang on – you can have a bit of grease” and wiped the scarf across his forehead a couple of times!! So I did get a top up!
Steve then chucked the picture back at me and I missed and it fell on the floor – rather than waste valuable James time, I left it there – and Kathy kindly picked it up and put it back on the table, so I didn’t see the extra artwork Steve had added until after! I was asking James how the scat for “When I was a Baby” was coming along – “horribly” was the answer! (I really want to hear him sing it live, but he has to sort out the scat he told me at FX) he said every thing he’s tried so far comes out all wrong and he hates it. Think I said something like “please keep trying – I want to hear you sing it!” and then I asked him a favour “When you throw your guitar picks into the crowd at the end of the gig – can you chuck some to the sides please? I never sit in the middle cos the sides are better for photographs, so I never get one!” James giggled and said “I’ve got a terrible aim – they just go anywhere”, but said he’d try and remember!
That was it for the first autograph – we shook hands and I got that stunning, beautiful smile and the lingering look into my eyes as I reluctantly turned away with a smile plastered all over my face!
I went straight back to photographing again – I was going to go and get another autograph but left it for a while before joining the queue again, so I used the intervening time wisely - taking as many pictures as possible of the most beautiful man from as many different angles as I could! And then Kelly and I joined the queue again, towards the end of the session. And this time I remembered to press the right button on the camera (arse-kicking paid off!) so you get all the details (and Im actually very coherent this time – and I mostly listen to what James is saying!)
I caught some of Kelly’s conversation with James as she was in front of me – She was having a CD signed for her son – “How old is he?” James asked “he’ll be 15 - if he survives that long!” replied Kelly which got a big laugh…!
Steve then chipped in that his daughter was 15 that day so Kelly asked what he got her “A sewing machine” said Steve. James looked round at him in amazement and said “Really? A sewing machine?” and Steve protested “its what she wanted!” and James shrugged and made an “OK” face and then said to Kelly “He has the coolest daughter. His daughter makes me nervous! That’s how cool she is – she’s like “hi- how ya doing…Whatever!”” and then he grinned.
AS he was signing the next item for her Kelly asked about how it was going with Monster Mania (the Con that was trying to get James in August) “Good talks? Any conversations?” and Steve chipped in “Not yet. You’ll be the last to know…!”
“Thanks – I’ll remember that Steve!” replied Kelly sarcastically and James was cracking up laughing and then he leaned forward to Kelly and said conspiratorly “He’s just as nice to me as well – just so you know!” Then as Steve was protesting, he added “that’s when he likes you!”
Then he turned back to me as I’m saying “Hi sweetie – I’m back again too – like fungus!” and I got a full-on James soft machine-gun laugh as we shook hands. Then he was looking for the name to personalise my picture so I said “You can just sign this one please, darling” (Its not until I hear myself on video that I realise just how many endearments I use all the time!)
“You got it” said James – it was a black and white one I had taken of him playing the guitar “That’s one of the ones I took – where did I take that one? Marstersclass – Drill Hall, in London.”
“Oh really?” James’s eyebrows went up as he looked at it “I look all serious and mature like that”
“Yeah, I was on the wrong side for you really for that one...” and James giggled and was smiling up at me so I went on “um – I brought you a prezzie. Your kind of book” and I handed him ‘Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives’ by Richard Wiseman (which I bought just before I came out and hoped I would get a chance to read it before I gave it to him!) James face lit up and he started to read the title out loud “Quirkology: The Curious Science of…uh-huh-huh – Nice!” and he looked really pleased. I said “I started reading it and I’m going “Darn, I want to read this before I give it to James!”” and he burst out laughing and said “Right on!” Then he started reading the blurb on the back cover and he was frowning and raising his eyebrows as he read and then kind of realised he had got caught up in the book and then quickly came back to me “Oh I can’t wait! I finished my book on the plane so I feel naked right now without a book.” (He needs to have a book! A man after my own heart!)
I put in quietly “I read an entire book on the way over here!” and James grinned “Right on!” and started looking at the blurb on the book again and then I got that very sincere and heartfelt “Thank you!” as he held the book to his chest and shook my hand – but I wasn’t finished – felt I had to say this:-
“Just wanted to say – I’m sorry about the photo ops. I didn’t mean to get you, when I got you to kneel down, I’m really sorry…” and James interrupted me, leaning forward “ Baby – no, no, no – that was the most fun of any photo op I’ve ever had, was this morning - cos nobody grabbed my ass!” (Me - “Thank God for that!”) “and I could just be friendly and open and have fun” – he’s circling both hands during this and then holds them both up and shakes them as he said “And I didn’t have to worry because…until…I’m all open until that happens” and he made a grabbing gesture with his right hand “And then you get the photographs that are like…” and he did a very forced cheesy grin “Yeah – you’ve seen those pictures” and I agreed I had (I own a few!) “But it’s all about that – how safe do I feel? And this morning everyone was cool and we could just have fun and it was all good!”
“Good – because it was lovely” and then I added “Are you sure? I’m not sure you were so happy about that…” and he came straight in with “No, no, no, no! It was very good for me. Really good”
So we shook hands again and I had a huge smile plastered over my face as I said “I’ll see you later. Love you sweetie!” and in return I got “Right on!” and then The Smile and “Love you too” as I started to move away, and the smile stayed…