We arrived at the Hilton Burbank Hotel, and let them upgrade the room to a suite. I was expecting a few more Scapers to be there, but there were enough, and they were suitably insane, so I was happy.
I bought so much merchandise at the traders stand that it wasn't even funny. The convention opened with music videos, which were on the whole excellent. First guests- David Kemper and Brian Henson. Then Gigi Edgley- she did her cry from Won't Get Fooled Again, and talked about the cast's holiday in Mexico before the convention. Gigi's very bouncy, much like Tigger. She read a poem of her own composition. Selection of fans for Farscape Live! Producers/directors forum, then Tammy Macintosh, who is very very nice. Farscape Live! Mostly they sucked. Then Anthony Simcoe came on, or rather, ran round the whole room, onto the stage, then did a few pratfalls. Autographs- I was in the 4th row, so the wait wasn't too long, but ignore the instructions of the Creation drones at your peril! ("no personalisations, one autograph per person, everyone up against the wall, no smiling" etc.) It was very hard deciding which photos to get signed. I wanted to tell Tammy that I'd never actually seen her in the show (stupid BBC), but she never looked up :-(. Anthony Simcoe wasn't too chatty either. I believe he had to fly back Australia that evening for another engagement. Gigi Edgley is nuts. I like her style.
After getting my autograph, I had a few hours to kill before the...
Cocktail party! Now, I wasn't sure what sort of cocktails they'd be serving, so to be on the safe side I took the precaution of having five beers before going down, which was a big advantage seeing as people were doing karaoke. In fact painkillers might have been better. The cocktails were lethal. I didn't exactly want three Long Island teas, but they kept appearing so I had them. I'd only gone done for the promised celebrity drop-ins, and sure enough Claudia, Lani, Wayne, Tammy and Gigi showed up, for a while at least. Claudia is very fine, or at least I think so, it was kind of hard to focus :-) After they left the evening wasn't quite so much fun. I got locked out of my room and couldn't find my roommate.
Charity breakfast at 10am. I was feeling very rough, but I'd no more miss a part of the convention than I would mud-wrestle my own mother, so I popped down. Same room as the cocktail party, with lots of tables and food, and celebrity guests Claudia, Ben, Wayne, Gigi and Tammy. Ben, in an attempted role-reversal, was taking photos of the audience. I didn't have my camera. Yeah right.
After the breakfast the convention room was very empty for the next guest Wayne Pygram. Fran Buller came on - she is very beautiful. Lani Tupu came on. He talked about his screaming in Season 3, and had us practise screaming. He said it was good for you if you havn't screamed for a long time, but I still had a hoarse voice from screaming IT'S CLAUDIA BLACK!!!!! and WAYNE!!! (not sure why) the night before.
Packed audience for Ben and Claudia.
Audience members could ask questions of all the guests, but in some cases it would have been better if they hadn't :-)
Mind you, it was worse in New York, people really say what they think there.
After Burbank, I nipped back to England and got my photos developed. Works a treat at curing jetlag. For good measure, I went to see Moulin Rouge for the fourth time.
To New York- serious pleasure overload- Moulin Rouge twice on the plane, Hedwig and David Bowie in my CD player, heading straight for the Empire State Building, off to see my favourite actress (Claudia) and favourite singer (Ute Lemper, who just happened to be performing that night in NYC) in my favourite city.
After the Ute concert I went to the hotel (the Pennsylvania) and met some scapers. There was a guy from Ireland in a Scorpius outfit. Some people had organised a party in the Presidential suite, a place that sounds a lot better than it is. In any case I was very tired by this time, having not had much sleep the previous night in the London hostel room I shared with three loud French persons.
Back to the hotel. I had a good seat. still wearing wrist band from Burbank. Music videos: "I'm too Sexy", "Fly Me to the Moon", "You Can't Get a Man with A Gun" and "The Muppet Show Theme". Kemper's telegrams. Claudia speaks Sebacean, sings. Ben. Fran appears. Claudia leaves.
Virginia Hey - Pages Bar London
Gigi Edgley - Pages Bar London