WOW! Ok, that was some weekend. ;D
I arrived late Wednesday, slept in and was full of enthusiasm. Then I got the heartbreaking news that 3 fans, Aeonflux, Leonessa and Dreams of Kai were delayed by the weather, and after a nasty wait at the airport had to abandon their efforts to attend.
By early afternoon BK had arrived and I greeted him and Xenia who were in the lobby together, and got a warm hello from Xenias mom on the way over to them. I told Bailey about the fans being delayed and possibly not showing, but he said that on the bright side, at least Frank wont be showing since he was also caught up in the weather, and Xenia displayed one beautiful smile at that comment. By Saturday that smile was lessened when it was learned that he managed to arrive. So once again a beautiful event had a dark cloud hanging over it.
After greeting Xenia I went back to the hotel bar to relax with Maya, Angel, Cheshire and friends. Virginia Hey and other Farscape cast were sitting just a couple tables over. After a while, Beth walked in and greeted them and Bailey who was also talking to Virginia at that time. Also, earlier or later, Lou Ferrigno simply wandered in and sat directly behind us at the bar. After a bit, Beth came our way and gave Maya a huge hug and greeting. At this point, nobody had heard anything from Michael but Beth had heard that Brian was on the way, just delayed. She also had a huge smile at the suggestion that Booth 818 might well be empty due to the weather problems.
Sometime later that evening Beth got word from Michael and she let Bailey know that he had safely arrived, so we all breathed a sigh of relief knowing the cast would all be there Friday.
Friday morning Michael got up early and took off golfing, and Maya at least drove Xenia with mom and baby over to the convention to get situated and Bailey as well. Maya came back to give some fans a ride and I went along then. The official shuttle bus turned out to be pretty nice and easy for fans, but xenia appreciated not having to deal with that while with her mom and baby.
Friday was not crowded at all, and Michael showed up soon enough, Brian was already set up when I got there. I didn’t get much signed, just got a set of Brian’s DVDs, several new items from Xenia, and just left Michael to his already long line of fans. Maya brought numerous items for fans that couldn’t come to have signed. When it looked like it would take awhile, she offered to Janika and others in line to come back later, but they said it was fine, and actually everyone enjoyed just watching. Michael didn’t bring much material himself, so it was interesting to see the items Maya brought for signing.
After the initial rush, the afternoon was pretty relaxed and not crowded at all. I went to a Farscape panel which was excellent, except that they didn’t allow video. I was talking to their manager just a half hour before and stupidly didn’t think to ask for permission then. Anyway it was a great panel.
The Friday night party that Brian and Maya arranged was at the far end of the main convention room of the hotel (not at the Megacon convention hall). It was a good sized room but intimate enough for casual atmosphere. Brian was showing some of his DVDs of outtakes and what not from Lexx filming, and narrating some of that. Xenia had intended to come but her baby kept giving her a look of "don’t leave mommy!" or something so she relented and stayed with him. He is such a darling, if you saw him you could hardly blame her for not coming.
Then the funny story is that the hotel security closed the access doors to the main convention hall because kids were running around in there, and Michael was greeted by locked doors and was a bit perplexed, but Bailey corrected that and he and more fans were soon to arrive.
A lot of fans didn’t know people or hadn’t met the cast before so there was a little shyness at first, but Brian always gets everybody involved soon enough and it was a good time for all. Somebody complained the conversation was dominated by politics and Iraq, in this thread. Well it’s a party, not a panel or presentation, and this was simply Michael asking questions of people there and people and him reacting. Anyone can change the topic if they wanted. Brian tried to redirect the group to the videos but eventually it turned into a ...party. Big surprise...LOL. So between Brian and Michael, or just fans talking to fans it was a nice 3 hour get together. The party continued on in the Hotel bar until closing, and most of the party attendees hung around for that, and between Michael and Brian, again there were great conversations to get in on or just enjoy listening, and plenty of drinks to go with that.
Saturday was packed solid at the convention, I never saw so many people, most wearing costumes of all sorts even. The cast table was at nearly the far corner of the hall. The 818 table was at the far opposite side, which was nice, so there was little harassment from that group of individuals due to the distance. The distance between the tables was no coincidence according to Beth as I understand it.
Xenia had brought a couple of new costumes to show, one from Downloaded a Demon, and one from Hell child. She also put out new prints of her German Playboy cover, and I got the first one signed. She made a point of telling me that so and so had not yet seen these and was glad that I got one first. Saturday afternoon was the cast panel, in a really nice room where everyone got reasonably close view. This time I cleared it with Bailey and xenia to do video and was set up and ready for that, and Maya set up next to me. The sound was great and we should be able to upload these soon enough. Frank was specifically banned from video after his previous abuses of the cast, but Bailey had to watch the cast table in the convention hall and wasn't able to stop him when Frank left and returned with video camera during the panel. Everyone else was allowed to take flash pictures and video all thru the event; hopefully they got some good tapings. I set up off to the side, near the panel table, which is not the best angle but I wanted to be sure the fans in the audience had a clear view without a lot of stuff blocking the way, and actually it came out pretty nice. We will try to upload some nice quality but low bandwidth video with clean clear sound soon enough for those who couldn’t attend to see or those that attended to relive.
Saturday night there was supposed to be some big convention party but most of us didn’t want to fight the traffic or issue of being out late drinking, and decided to go out for dinner at a nice restaurant and then just hang at the hotel bar. I went out with Maya, Angel, Cheshire, CatCharm, and Periodoteyes and we had a much delayed but very delicious meal. Upon returning to the hotel found that the cast weren’t even going to the party either, for pretty much the same reasons, too far, too noisy, too much hassle. Xenia stayed in her room, but Bailey and Brian hung out at the bar with us, while Michael was out with a friend. We tried to quit early for the night but somehow ended up partying insanely late with Brian anyway.
Sunday I decided to get up early for a change and got to the convention hall to find an empty cast table. After a bit, Michael showed up with Flamegrape, who had just completed a short video interview with him. After a short chat, Flamegrape left and I had the distinct pleasure of hanging with Michael while no other cast or fans around. I pulled up a chair behind the table next to him and he got out a nice notebook computer and showed me an unreleased German short film that he was in, while he described the film as we watched it together. There is a scene where Michael is shaving in the film, and I kidded Michael about his current unshaved appearance. After that we planned out the interview that Maya had scheduled with him for Sunday and worked out the exact place and time for that. Then I chose this time to get my signings done and signings for friends. When he misspelled a friends name twice it was a bit upsetting because I didn’t want to complain so didn’t say anything. I gave him a DVD of the panel interview in unedited form which he appreciated.
Then later Xenia came in with prints of Mayas Megacon posters so I had one of those signed by Michael and this time pointed out the spelling error. He then insisted on redoing the first two items spelled correctly which was really nice of him. As fans showed up, I relinquished my cherished seat next to Michael and moved on to get more signings from Brian and Xenia.
Michael had said that he was already checked out of the hotel, and would leave the con some time after 5 pm. I thought he was going straight to the airport but he stopped at the hotel for a drink, maybe needed to get his bags too. So we got a last hangout and drink with Michael, then a couple of fans from the party who lived in Florida actually gave him a ride to the airport.
Sunday evening we tried to go out to eat but everywhere was so insanely crowded due to the Daytona racing weekend, so we just went back to the hotel bar and ordered food there. Gradually more fans showed up along with Brian and once again we partied until way too late, with sad goodbyes to be said. Monday morning some of us had a quick breakfast, and I took a taxi with Cheshire to the airport. Since our gates were adjacent, we watched panel and interview videos on my notebook computer for around an hour, and then said our last sad goodbyes for this wonderful con.
I want to make a comment about people speculating about "this group of fans" and "that group of fans." As far as I can see, there is just one group of fans, then maybe 3 or so individuals that have been trying to order the cast around or take over fandom and have done some pretty outrageous things that aren’t allegations. There are plenty of facts that can be stated, but it’s really not fun for the greater body of fans out there to be drug into this, and everyone is doing there best to keep a lid on it so the cast and fans at large can have a good time and go away with wonderful memories. I still have a bad memory of seeing Xenia mistreated and unhappy at Timeless Destinations last summer. Fortunately that wasn’t repeated but even so, this same individual managed to lessen her smile at this convention as well.
Last summer, after Timeless Destinations this individual tried to order me and other fans around to only enjoy Lexx his way, which we refused. He proceeded to do quite a few outrages stunts essentially isolating himself entirely. Since then he allied with several other equally isolated fans that have quite bizarre dreams of some Lexx revival. It’s fine to have dreams but not when it involves stalking the cast or harassing or abusing other fans. They will continue and continue to lie and try to gain sympathy or support, and have already at this convention upset and confused many a fan simply wanting to enjoy their experience of Lexx or the cast. We were all friends before, we all worked together before, but this one person and new allies just got too greedy and possessive trying to define the role of a fan, or ordering the cast around, or promising things to get access then not delivering.
Frank owns a lot of genuine Lexx props, and its wonderful for fans to be able to see that stuff at a con table, nothing wrong with that and I sincerely hope many fans went there and got a good look, no reason to feel bad about that at all, or the art or fiction that those individuals present. But they don’t represent anybody and their great plans are just fantasy.
Finally I have to give huge huge thanks to Brian for such incredible generosity and such a genuine heart, and going to endless effort to keep things positive and smiles on fans faces regardless of events behind the scene. Bailey, Xenia, Brian and Michael really did a lot of hard work this weekend and did their best to make every last fan have a positive memory of it. There were a whole lot of cameras and video there on the convention floor and we can all look forward to seeing a variety of people sharing that in the weeks to come.