Last night was the Sci Fi dinner. In attendance: representatives from Sci Fi, Eureka, Who Wants to be Superhero, Flash Gordon, and, Stargate Atlantis. We got there for 8:00 p.m., assuming we’d be sitting down to eat at 8:30ish – but we weren’t actually seated until 9:30 p.m. by which time I was pretty much stuffed on passing mushroom empanadas, chicken taquitos, and little shrimp and salsa nacho things. Still, I managed to make it through all of my soup and a good part of my chicken with Diablo sauce (I assured the waiter I liked spicy so I suspect he relayed this to the chef who took it as a personal challenge. It was definitely, uh, piquant. I felt as though I’d been sucking on heated coals!). Our table (David and Jane, Nora, Claire, and Erik from Sci Fi, Jewel and Matt, and myself) had a terrific time and by the time I hit the hotel at a little before 11:00 p.m., I was exhausted. It had been quite a day.
I sat in the audience for the Ark of Truth panel. They kicked things off with a truly spectacular trailer (makes me want to see the movie one more time) after which Rob, Ben, Chris, Amanda, and Martin took the stage. This year, there was plenty more time for questions. Lots of good back and forth between the panelists. The highlight, I thought, was the moment a fan belted out a Stargate parody for the less than appreciative audience. Chris, Amanda, and Ben weighed in on the performance as Randy, Paula, and Simon.
The trailer that Sci Fi put together for the Atlantis panel also kicked ass. Hopefully, you’ll all be able to catch it soon. The panel itself went well although everyone complained about the lights (hot!), and the acoustics (no one could hear anyone else talking). It was hard to see anything from where we were sitting, but I did catch the yellow and blue of the waving Scottish flags. And, once the panel wrapped and the lights went up, the bagpiper who started playing near the front row startled the hell out of me. As I made my way down to the convention floor, I signed some autographs, posed for pics, received a nifty gift bag from the SCB campaign organizers, and chatted with fellow Vancouverite Vikitty and SCB organizer Michelle (who I ended up walking the floor with for a while). Some truly, truly bizarre outfits on display – as some of these pictures will prove.
We were done and I was planning to head back to the hotel when our publicist Brigitte informed me that a small fan gathering would be taking place in one of the smaller rooms and would I like to stick around to say hi. I said sure and so, an hour and a half later, I made my way up to room 24A where a bunch of SG teams were loitering about. Met some more fans and also spoke to absent fan Desiree way back on the east coast (her friend handed me her cellphone and said: “Here, say hi to Desiree”. I, of course, admonished her for not showing up and choosing to attend Dragon Con over Comic Con).
And so, Martin Wood, Ben Browder, and myself put in a brief appearance, saying hi to the gathering and a special hi to Late Night correspondent and Stargate fan Pierre Bernard. Ben, upon spotting Pierre who put in an appearance in 200 as a zombie that Mitchell guns down: “Bernard! Didn’t I kill you already?”.
We retired to the Green Room for a few minutes where I chowed down on brownies and pecan tarts, and met actor Brandon Molale who is in the running to play Captain Marvel in the upcoming Shazam! After that, it was another long limo ride back to the hotel.
Well, I’ll leave the rest of this blog to the pics. I have an afternoon of R&R during which I’ll be holed-up in my room, reading A Game of Thrones. Then, at 7:30 p.m., we’ll be heading out to the big Sci Fi party. I’ll snap some pics for ya.
Today’s pics: David and the ladies, Marla from Eclipse Magazine, Ben kicking back before the panel, Nora sabotages my photo-op, Mr. Flanigan, Shaun Farrell from Adventures in Scifi Publishing, Jordan from UGO, a character from Star Wars I assume, Black Cat, WTF?, Is this what my life has come to?, Evil Bo Peep?, the original Wolverine bub, Mad Eye Moody, Hey it’s the Batmobile! a bad night at the prom, SG teams ready to head off-world, the off-world gathering of fans, Brandon Molale the new Captain Marvel?, heading out the back to catch our lift, Claire all dressed up and ready to dine, Nora reprimands the ever-naughty David Hewlett, Oh my Gawd I can’t believe I’m sitting beside Jewel Staite!, Nora O’Brien and Erik Storey in an animated discussion, Jewel and Matt show off the menu.
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