With the kind permission of DB Sommer to post
this to the FFML, I now give to you the Grand Adventures
of Ed in Convention-Land. Less hentai than Miyuki-chan in
Wonderland, but just as weird. ^_^
Ed Becerra
10:31 PM 4/25/2003
Friday, 7:30 am - wake up and swear a lot at that damn fusion
reaction 93 million miles away. ^_^
9 am - on the road, thankfully, got an early start. Had to stop in
Sterling for 35mm film, batteries, and breakfast.
12:30 - Found out that a favorite truck stop of mine had finally
closed, sold out to the forces of evil. (AKA Safeway Groceries.)
Bummer.
1 pm (approx) - after getting lost in Denver (again!) I finally
discover the Denver Tech Center, and the Marriot Hotel. Only to have
the desk clerk grab me, force me into a chair, then call the hotel
doctor. Like an idiot, I'd forgotten my blood pressure meds, then
went and dehydrated myself on top of that. BAAKA! They forced fluids
on me, then I took my prinivil, and recovered rapidly enough. Aili's
gonna kill me when she finds out.
2 pm - Rested, medicated, and checked in, I take a shower, then go
downstairs to get my con badge.
4:30 - There's an authentic Japanese restaurant here! Gasho's of
Denver, it's in an authentic Hein era Japanese farmhouse, centuries
old and imported piece by piece to the US as a friendship gift from
the Emperor. WOW. And tis LITERALLY across the street from the hotel.
Took photos for the gang, then had a wonderful dinner there. Best
part is that if you order a non-alcoholic drink, they include a free
porcelain Buddha or Samurai mug for you to take home! (meant for the
kids, really, but they were kind and understanding when I told them
about the hypertension medication <no alcohol!!> that I was on.)
A photo of the mug WILL be available as soon as I get my film
processed. Heh.
Trust me, Gasho's is a hoot, and if you live near one of the four Gasho's
in the US, it's WORTH the trip. Oh, yeah!
6 pm - Dealer's room opens. Unfortunately, no copy of "Sakura Wars"
for Bob. :( Will check again tomorrow after they open all of their
crates.
9 pm - Cheese quesadias in the hotel restaurant. Not bad, though
I've had better.
10 pm - Dealer's room closing, might as well head to bed.
10:30 pm - Making these entries, and checking the freebies they
handed out with the convention flyers. They included a DVD! "The
AniMatrix - A DVD Screener. FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY, NOT FOR SALE
OR RENTAL"
Well, I'll change that soon enough. Heh. It appears (as far as I can
tell without a DVD drive on ths laptop, or a player) to be a
collection of the new Japanese short animes based on "The Matrix"
They _also_ included a QwestDex CD-Rom phone book. God knows why.
Prime coaster material, far as I'm concerned.
It's about 10:50 as I write this, I'm going to close this entry,
take a sleeing pill and get some rest. Tomorrow starts pretty early,
and they have plenty of guest stars to see.
Nite, all!
10:51 PM 4/25/2003
---------------------------------
2:00 PM 4/26/2003
Saturday
2 pm, just up for a bite of lunch. Actually found a copy of BGCrash!
on DVD. Subbed AND dubbed. Grabbed it immediately. All three eps
on a single DVD. Nice. No Crisis DVDs, unfortunately. Bugger.
Patrick Kilpatrick, the actor who gets to play villains over and
over, starred in the main events room at 1pm. Nice guy, gave a
FASCINATING lecture on how to maintain your sanity while playing
evil characters at an almost non-stop pace.
Have to stop here - Richard Biggs from Babylon 5 appears at 2:30.
Then at 3 in the anime room is Great Teacher Onizuka. Never seen it,
want to give it a try.
2:09 PM 4/26/2003
8:19 PM 4/26/2003
Spoke with Mr. Biggs. Told him about what he and the rest of the B5
cast had done for Mom. He came down and shook my hand, thanking
ME. I don't understand why. I suppose it's another one of those
things that my Aili says I'm 'just too noble' to understand. Noble,
my arse. I'm just dense. (but she won't accept that. part of why I
love her so.)
GTO was great. Episode 9 was fascinating. I'll have to see about
getting some subs on tape. Perhaps someone on the FFML can
help? Have to ask around privately.
Searched the dealer's room again, couldn't find the Sakura Wars Bob
Schroek wanted. Did find a dealer, tho, in downtown Denver. No more
mail order, perhaps?
Attended the costume contest, and almost ran out of film getting
the good costumes. The Best of Show wore a Todd McFarlan/SPAWN
costume that had people on their feet applauding, it was that good.
The fantasy/anime division had an excellent turnout as well. The
Venus Five showed up, "fighting for love, justice, and cute boys
in tight pants." ^_^
Again, photos WILL be made available. Heh.
They got second in the anime group. First went to a pair of gals
dressed up as characters from a fighting game/anime that I dimly
recognized, but could NOT remember the name of. They actually
held an impromptu martial arts match on stage that had the crowd
cheering.
Met an anime fan artist, too! She's willing to try to do some fan art
for "Legion's Quest" and Xanadu. Yeah! Got her card, phone, and
email.
The convention parody play was a takeoff on Joe Millionaire,
"Wesley Millionaire". Of course, none of the contestants wanted
Wesley. ^_^
Judson Scott (Wrath of Khan) told jokes, and Chase Masterson (DS9's
"Leeta") sang "Fever". (Madonna did it better, and Chase is putting
on weight.)
Right now, Walter Koenig and Rick Herd are doing a play for charity.
Tickets were high, I couldn't afford it. Damn.
At 11, all NINE episodes of "The Animatrix" will be shown. This
compilation (StarFest says) will NOT be seen in theaters. BOO-YAH!
DEFINITELY seeing _that_. (And will report on it.)
Gonna close now, to take all the lugage I won't need to the car, in
order to get an early checkout tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow's entries wil have to be from memory, as the laptop gets
locked up in the car after checkout. Wish I could afford to simply
stay Sunday night too, but I'm already bleeding cash. :(
And I'm very worried. Called Aili's number three times today, no
answer. I don't know what to think. :(
8:40 PM 4/26/2003
-------------------------------
7:31 AM 4/27/2003
Sunday - First (and only) entry before I check out. Animatrix
was a partial bust - the DVD was locked, and required codes to
release several of the features. Still got to see four of them. Ah,
well. BTW, "The Final Flight of the Osiris", one of the Animatrix
episodes, broke new ground in CGI.. it was so lifelike, it made
the "Final Fantasy" movie look as primitive as "Toy Story"!
Whoot!
Checking out now, see you in about 12 hours.
7:34 AM 4/27/2003
Breakfast, then the "Lost Episode" of Smallville. Interesting,
and it differed in several places from the pilot episode that
actually aired on TV.
Tried shopping again, skipping Chase Masterson. She's gained weight,
and her singing has slipped. If I wanted to see an overweight
woman singing badly, I'd buy tickets to an Ethel Merman concert.
12:00 - Ran into (literally) Mr. Biggs again, and took the
opportunity to thank him a second time for what he and the rest of
the B-5 cast did for Momma. He seemed to think HE should be thanking
me. And he insisted that I accept an autographed photo. I tried to
refuse. He then offered to make it out in the memory of Momma. I
couldn't turn that down. I tried to pay, but he wouldn't accept the
cash. I asked him to consider a donation to charity instead. He
accepted, and I'm going to donate what would have been the price
of the autograph to a Denver-based Cancer charity.
Met his family, too. His wife is lovely, and his little boy is gonna
break girl's hearts when he grows up.
1:00 pm - Manu Intiraymi, the actor who played the teenage Borg boy
on Voyager was next up. Funny man, and he had a lot of anecdotes
about being a young male actor who regularly comes face to face (and
eyes to cleavage) with Jeri Ryan. Heh.
1:45 - Judson Scott, aka "the son of Khan" is next. Interesting
man, and a close friend of Ricardo Montalbon's, he spoke of what it
was like to be mentored by such a great actor.
2:30 - Walter Koenig.. wonderfully funny, and someone who had
something in common with me, oddly enough. Seems he _wasn't_
originally planned for the role of Psi-Cop Bester in B-5. They had
another roll for him. But he suffered a heart attack in a hotel,
required a quad bypass, and missed the first roll. JMS was so
determined to keep his promise of a spot in the show, he wrote up
Bester on the spot, just for Walter.
3:15 - Richard Herd. Not only an actor, but a GI like myself, he's
decided to retire from major films (he no longer needs the money)
and enjoy his new career as a painter and sculpter. Now THERE'S
a surprise! But, he says, he'll still act in plays, strictly for the
pleasure. He'd just had his first gallery showing, and to his
surprise, people were offering thousands of dollars for his work!
Pity, tho. After seeing him in "V - The Series", Trek, Voyager, and
so many other films, I'm going to miss him.
4:00 - John Billingsley, "Dr. Phlox" of Enterprise brought his wife
to the con. She sat out in the audience, heckling her husband and
had us all in stitches. Wonderful woman. John's a commedian at
heart and had us all rolling in the isles.
5:00 - On the road home.
9:30 - Home. Bed.
Tuesday Postscript, 2 pm - Aili's on ICQ right now! Her phone
number was changed and the email notifying me of that little fact
was eaten by my ISP. ( DIE, SCHOLLNET!! ) She's safe and
secure, I am DEEPLY relieved.
Thank goodness.
"Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal..."
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