Gatecon 2001

Valerie's Con Report, Part 1

Disclaimer: These are the Extremely Subjective Impressions of someone who spent a great deal of time manning her dealer's table, so bear with me. I guess it qualifies as a different perspective. *g*

The joyous insanity that was Gatecon 2001 started (well, at least the part other people might be interested in started) with Sekh's Party at Planet Hollywood. Munchies, many happybouncy fans meeting/reuiniting, cool music vids, silly games (including the Froot Loop pass, at which my team distinguished itself by our complete and utter ineptitude), and a highly successful raffle for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Also attended by Brent Stait (Ferretti in the SG-1 pilot, and now Rev Bem on Andromeda), Colin Cunningham (Major Davis), and the Great Goofball himself, JR Bourne (Martouf). Stood in the little knot of people around Brent for a while, and completely failed to recognize him with longish hair and a Brit (I think) accent. Pretty sorry commentary on me--I've been known to spot his mannerisms through major prosthetics on Andromeda, but couldn't place him when he was standing right next to me. *blush*

JR's niece has CF, and his sister works extensively with CCFF. He seems to do more than a little for them himself--he downplays his own contribution a lot, but after watching him cheerfully drive himself into the ground for five days straight (including a lunch, going out to do karaoke, and a walk in the park in addition to the con, which he auctioned to various individuals and small groups of fans on eBay earlier this year, and all of which he had to schedule with them while he and they were in Vancouver), I don't think anybody's going to let him get away with too much downplaying. He made his way around the restaurant chatting with everybody, on his way to the stage to draw all the raffle tickets (and there were a lot of them, 'cause there were a lot of very cool prizes contributed by various folks). Very sweet, charming, incredibly dedicated, sly sense of humor, all around Very Cool Guy. Constantly chewing gum, frequently offering it to others. Utter goofball. I don't think I saw him stop grinning all weekend, even when I was sure he needed to be sent to bed (by force, if necessary) before he keeled over. (Am I the only FK fan who's starting to wonder if he's related to Ger? Especially since a lot of something is a "whack" of something, and he's only the second person I've ever heard use that phrase...)

Thursday turned out to be the best dealer's room day; unfortunately, it was because there were no panels that day because guests' work and/or travel schedules had been disrupted after the terrorist attacks. On the upside, though, my jaw just about dented the floor when Virginia Hey (Zhaan from Farscape) walked in and started setting up to do autographs at the table kitty-corner to mine. Very pleasant surprise indeed, and not the last of the weekend! She is every bit as graceful and gracious as Zhaan in real life.

Don Davis (General Hammond) also stopped by that day, to chat with the Air Force folks (MSgt. Tom, the show's tech advisor, and two recruiting officers, who brought nifty lanyards for our con badges) and check in with the rep selling prints of his pen-and-ink drawings. They're lovely work, very elegant, sort of neo-Classical. I was reeeeeeeaaaaalllly tempted--kept wandering back over to the table just to look at them. I went over to give him one of the red white & blue unity ribbons I had brought to give out at the party and at my table, and he very kindly posed for a quite unscheduled photo with me at someone else's suggestion. Nice guy. Shameless flirt. And that voice is something to hear ringing across the room!

Poor Alexis Cruz (Skaara), con virgin no more, was the lone guest who made it to the cocktail party Thursday night. He got shuttled from table to table, talking and listening to everyone in attendance (our table wound up talking as much about airport security as anything else). Like all the guests, he was very friendly and generous with his time and attention. He's also brilliant, full stop. You can pretty much guess that about a guy who's founded his own theatre company well before age 30, but I also say it based on the fact that we were treated to a lot of extremely articulate insights on his experience playing Skaara and Klorel, and on his work in general. Particularly the kind of environment he wants his theatre to be--very process-oriented, a safe place for actors to really experiment and work through things before getting in front of an audience and being judged. He pointed out that that's particularly hard to find in L.A., and my hat is off to him for taking the initiative to create it. And I'm digressing into stuff he said in his panel on Friday, and I have a lot more to tell, so I'm going to stop here and continue in the next part.

On to Gatecon 2001 Report, Part 2

Back to Gatecon 2001 Photo Album

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