Thank you
very much Rosie for the report, and
Pics |
Rosie Goes to See James at Dragon Con
Party! (Part 2)
Now it was time for both the boys to come round to the
tables. James went to the table by the mic first and we got
Gareth first!! Have to say he is a bit of a sweetie -
quieter in this situation than on stage, but lovely. We had
to keep asking questions to keep him talking not like
James who you just point in the right direction and let him
run!. We mostly let the 3 Gareth fans do the talking, cos
that seemed only fair. They asked him the name of the only
decent pub in Newport (according to Gareth) and the night
out with James. They gave him a couple of Blue Gillespie T
shirts they had made which was sweet. Poor love was in a bit
of pain as he said he had hurt his arse a few weeks before
in the gym had a bit of an accident with the weights, so
Lisa got him a stool to sit on instead of a chair! I asked
him about what work he had coming up and he said filming
Torchwood until Christmas and then he hoped to be coming to
the States in January. I got some shots of him sitting there
in his woolly beanie hat despite the heat. He said he
found it in his pocket so he put it on it was made for him
by a fan.
Then it was all change time. We had a gap as the next table
along had James he was sitting facing me so I was able to
take quite a few shots from where I was. He was just being
so animated and enthusiastic
!
It didn't seem very long before James was approaching our
table. He sat at the end where Gareth had been so he was
across diagonally from me (not that any of us further down
the table could have moved if we had wanted to!) Janet had
to fix the mic of her audio recorder onto James shirt not
that I was complaining because it pulled it just a bit more
open and we got a lovely view of even more chest
(Not that
I'm shallow or anything
!)
And then, James being James, he was off an running saying
he had been talking about Helium 3 on the other tables and
then went off into full-on Geek James about the different
countries that are fighting to go to the moon (I think..!)
He was very enthusiastic, using his hands a lot and using
the odd expletive. We must have all looked a bit blank and
shell shocked!! (though I adore geeky James) So then we
talked about Moonshot James retold the Buzz story and said
he now really understood the amount of crap astronauts have
to go through and also added that he had changed his mind
about the caveman vs. astronaut argument the astronauts
would win every time especially if it was Buzz!!
He loved working with the rest of the cast and the director
and felt they really did become a team became a very close
knit unit with the other two astronauts, they would watch
each others backs and look after each other. He then told us
a story about the monkey on the set ( I assume its to do
with the monkeys they sent into space) James didn't like the
monkey cos it crapped everywhere on the set but the monkey
handler was about 65 years old and turned up each day with a
scantily clad teenager. James said they (the actors and crew)
weren't a bit subtle - "who ordered the hooker?" because she
was dressed that way. Then they discovered she was 16 years
old and she was the guy's wife
! James did a HUGE "bleah"
shiver at that one!
And writing this, I've just remembered something else he
said after that in Lithuania, at first the men were really
friendly with him and the woman were cold and stand offish.
But once he started talking to them, they got really
animated and friendly (uh - James that might just be
because it's YOU!) and the men got colder. He then found
that the men treated the women like shit, more like a
possession and so they were expecting him to be like all the
others, and then opened up when they found a guy who would
talk to them as an equal and a human being.
One of the Gareth fans as talking about Buzz's punch again
and technique and James was disagreeing with her about the
technique, and then there was a pause, so decided it was my
turn to dive in So I said "ok now Im going to trivialise
things a bit but I have to ask if you went to someone's
house and discovered the place was covered in pictures of
you, would you be running away very fast?"
James laughed and said "No not at all. I'd be cool with
that. Hell, I used to have Leonard Nimoy all over my room!"
to which I replied "oh good, so I don't need to take all
the pictures down before you come round!" and he grinned.
Then Janet caught his attention (she was sitting on his left)
but it was to do with the mic, so whilst she was fiddling
with it, I asked "James, are you going to wear that shirt
for the photo ops tomorrow?" and he replied " Do you want me
to?" to which me, Stephen and, I think, Katie said "YES"!!
Then he explained that as he wanted to do nice clear
autographs for everyone, he was always shaking the pens and
tended to get ink everywhere, which is why we always saw him
in the old shirts for autographs. He said it was the nicest
shirt he owned and he didn't want to get ink on it. I think
I might have said "oh please?" or something at this point. I
told him he was looking really good and he replied that he
had just had 4 weeks off so was feeling so much better after
the continuous year and a half with no days off " and I mean
no weekends, no Saturdays" to emphasise his point. And then
added "You should have seen me 4 weeks ago I looked like
shit!"
All the time he is talking to me, James is looking me
straight in the eyes across the table and I was really aware
of his beautiful cheekbones the shadows were just catching
him right. I had to give myself a little mental shake
"this is James across the table. It really is James who you
are looking across at and having a conversation with!" which
is probably why I don't remember some of what was said
there was too much to take in at once.!! Gorgeous sight,
gorgeous sound!
James was talking to Janet again then he had to turn
towards her so he could lip read, and I couldn't hear the
question, but I think she must have asked him about toys/action
figures from Dragonball because James's answer was "a
Piccolo dildo"!! I think we all did a double take, thinking
we hadn't heard it right and then James had to repeat it
again slowly for Janet "a Piccolo dildo" so we weren't
hearing things (but I wish I had heard the question.!)
Addressing the whole table James said the toy he would
really like to se was a life sized head of Piccolo which if
you tried to put anything in his mouth would say "Bite me!"
go figure!
Then I got in again and said "most of us discovered you
because of Spike. Until I met you for the first time, you
were James Marsters, Spike from Buffy, but as soon as I met
you, immediately you became 2 completely separate entities.
There's James" and I indicated one side "and there's Spike"
indicating the other. James was grinning and said that Spike
was not like him at all he had an IQ that was about 50
points lower than James. "Not stupid - he wasn't stupid, but
I had to do a lot of thinking (made appropriate `thinking'
face!) on set". And I do remember something about Spike
being very petulant and sulky and me adding with the
maturity of a 12 year old! James then said he had had 5
perfect roles in his acting life so far 4 of them in
theatre and probably seen by a total of 10,000 people
altogether and Spike. I told him that now I often forgot
it was him playing Spike as I think of them as so different
now " I have to remind myself " that's James" on screen"
which he appreciated because I don't think of him and Spike
as one and the same . I think I got a definitive head bob
(you know the one he does!) with a "yeah" in answer as well,
which makes it definite!
I asked him what work he had coming up and he said
Dragonball and Moonshot, but I clarified " anything new?"
and he replied nothing at the moment there's nothing in
the pipeline.
It was about now that Helen came over to try and extract him
to go to the next table, but we were still keeping him
talking. As he got up, Katie asked him about a new album and
he replied with a grin it cost me forty thousand dollars
for the last one, so it needs to make more money!" and the
laughed and was gone to the next table.
I quickly yanked out my notebook and saying to Stephen
"quick what did he say?" and he was prompting me as I
wrote notes (the ones I'm using now!) I was able to take a
lot of pictures whilst he was at our table but not whilst
he was talking to me (as that would have been rude!) Got up
to talk to Patti a the next table as they had had James
there already and then was talking with her and SteveH who
then showed us that he can do the trick with the cherry stem
tying it in a knot with his tongue!! SteveH has hidden
talents!! I had a photo with him taken by Patti and then we
were talking about all the stuff that has been going on, on
the internet and SteveH said he just couldn't win all he
could do was laugh. I said to him what Patti and I had been
talking about earlier if James drank at the party, then he
had a problem and if he didn't drink, then he was on the
wagon and so had a problem. We were pleased James was
drinking (one glass of red wine that lasted him all evening)
as he is a grown man and can make his own decisions!
After that (having made some more notes of things as I
remembered them) I was talking to Lisa in the middle of the
room she was keeping an eye on the table that James was
now at (the last one at this point) she said " as long as
no one jumps him on this last table, we're home free" and
then added " yes, I know he's a big boy and he can take care
of himself, but it's on my watch!" We talked a bit about the
groping and inappropriate touching and Lisa said mostly it
was people not realising what they had done and being
mortified straight after something seems to come over
people in that situation. They hadn't really had any
problems this time as the photo room was big and light and
open (not a closed in little space like at Milton Keynes)
and Froggy was quick but firm and polite. Seems to help
stop people when it's a much more open and exposed
environment (do people think that if others can't see it
happening, they can get away with it? Um - I think James is
going to know!!)
I wanted to get my ticket back Lisa understood about that,
wanting it for the scrap book as a memento so I asked
SteveH and he gave me mine back and yelled out if anyone
else wanted theirs back to keep a lot of people did!
Stephen had slipped SteveH a note saying could we sing Happy
Birthday to James at the end, so when both boys had come to
the mic, SteveH told him that Gareth was going to lead
everyone in singing "Mr Marsters" Happy Birthday. He made
James come to the middle of the room, which he did with good
grace even though he was protesting and decided to go the
whole hog by standing on a chair whilst we all sang. When
we got to his name, Gareth sang "James Marsters, Spike from
Buffy" (it's become James clarifying title now
JamesMarstersSpikefromBuffy, all one word!) This is the only
time I have seen James look a bit embarrassed he was
laughing as he called across "I am so going to kick your ass"
but I'm not sure if he was addressing SteveH or Gareth!
And then it was nearly over James laughing and exchanging
a few comments with people and then he was going I called
out " goodnight James" as he went there is no way I could
have got out of my seat to get any closer, so just took
hasty pictures.
It was great I loved it. Every minute of it. Loved to hear
James sing, fantastic to have him to talk to and not feel
rushed to just gabble a question or two. This was my first
(and hopefully not last) intimate event with James and I
loved it it was worth every damn cent. I felt so happy
afterwards, going back in the taxi we weren't really
talking, just remembering bits from the evening.
Up to now the weekend had been so great and it just kept
on going! Outside Stephen and Squirrels hotel, I met Merce,
a Spanish James fan whom I last saw at MK I didn't know
she was going to be here so that was a nice surprise. We had
a bit of a chat she was really at D*C for writers
workshops - and hoped we could find each other again the
next day. Once back at the hotel, I had a quick flip through
my pictures and pulled a few off the camera to post so
people could see what it was like. I was wide awake and
still bouncing and squeeing all over the place because
still had another panel to go in the morning, and more photo
ops and autographs the next day AND a bit more on Monday
too! A wonderful, long weekend in the company of so many
lovely people and most importantly, the most wonderful,
gorgeous man on earth!! (That's James in case you were
wondering
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