In This Section
TV Guide Spotlight
Also on TVGuide.com
|
« Panns' Ponderings
Supernatural LA Convention
Jared
Blue Steel
Greetings all! I’m still a little tired from the weekend convention, but I wanted to get some stuff down before it starts to fade. This isn’t going to be a “blow by blow” description. There’s no point in everyone posting the same thing, so I’ll give my personal impressions and experiences, and we’ll sort out who is going to be the official storyteller *coughMarycough*
Where do I start? Well, I guess in the words of Maria, I’ll start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start.)
And this convention started with a concert by Jason Manns. Well, really it started with meeting SJ, Met and schroan who are all wonderful people. But you all already knew that.
Now I came in too late to see the concert by Jason Manns, so I can’t report to that, so I’ll begin with Fredric Lehne. Fredric told us that he has been in the business for 30 years, and if you look at the 94 entries in imdb, sure enough, the first is “In the Beginning” which was in 1978. I’ve been confused as to the spelling of his name, and he said during the Q & A that was his fault. He tried to change his name to “Lane” midway through his career. In hindsight, he said, that wasn’t the best idea.
Fredric started by playing guitar and giving his rendition of “Sympathy for the Devil”. I hadn’t seen any clips from the Chicago show, so I thought that it was really funny when he sang “I shouted out who killed John Winchester . . . when after all it was Eric Kripke.” He apologized that it was the same song as Chicago and promised to have new material for Dallas.
I'll link a video of that in the comments.
On stage, Fredric was very comfortable and witty. When there were no questions, he told stories, and when there were he was informative with a definite sense of humor. For example, when asked if there was any chance we’d see the YED again, he suggested we ask Eric Kripke. He followed that up with “mention the words ‘spin-off;”. (Note: the quotes here are really paraphrases. I can jot notes, but I’m not up to shorthand!). Another time he talked about the yellow contact lenses and the fact that they discovered he could see white things on the ground with his peripheral vision. They used copious amounts of chalk in order to get him to hit his marks. So when a woman mentioned that he looked sexy in his yellow contact lenses, he made a mildly ribald comment something to the effect of that he would be happy to put them on, but she would have to leave her keds on so that he could see where she was.
Jason Manns was on next, and since I had missed his concert, it was nice to see and hear him. He was a little less comfortable on stage when there were no questions, but he had a good humor when he was answering questions. When the line finished he asked if we wanted to hear a song, and pulled out his guitar to sing for us. Sigh. I wish I had been able to see that concert.
Then it was Chad Lindberg’s turn. He’s very sweet and amusing. When asked what his favorite Ash line was, he said “all business up front and a party in the back.” A couple of times he did the hair flip as if he had a mullet, which was hilarious.
Next up, Eric Kripke. I don’t know if I can find the words to adequately describe. It’s like the time my roommate brought me to a Buddy Guy concert. I went expecting to hear some good music, and left in total awe of the experience. He was animated, energetic, eloquent, intelligent . . . well, you get the idea. I was very impressed by the way he balanced giving out information without giving us too much information. And they way his hands were in constant motion, just like his energy was constantly bubbling over.
And yet, he stayed until everyone who wanted to get an autograph received one. He chatted with people and took pictures with them. And there was a stack of pictures of him in case somebody didn’t have something for him to sign. A very nice, unassuming man.
I gave him our blog, and he seemed to really appreciate it. I posted the picture and description in the blog here.
The convention people seemed to keep the autograph line moving well. Fredric showed up a little . . .um . . . late for the autographs, so he had a separate line. I asked him to sign with a gold pen (cause he is the yellowed-eyed demon), and his voice dropped to a growl and he looked dangerous and said “are you being difficult?” Cool. I just got menaced by the YED! Later in the lobby he was more than happy to have us take some pictures with him.
I made up a scrapbook page for the “day one” people to sign. I’m not sure how to scan in a 12X12 to show you the signatures, but here is the page before the autographs.
And after the autographs, we got to see Eric and Fredric meet for the first time face to face!
So on to day two. I couldn’t stay the whole day, so unfortunately I missed Steve Carlson and Sandra McCoy. But to give you an idea of what the day was like, I had a scone first thing in the morning, and then didn’t eat again until 4:00PM because I didn’t even think about being hungry.
Wow. What can I say? First up was the photo ops and because I wasn’t at the gold member breakfast, I was in the front of the line. I got there around 9:00, not 7:30 like I told Met when she asked me. I then immediately felt guilty for being snarky cause I found out the people waiting in the duo picture line had been there since 7:15. (Sorry ladies!)
After the photo ops, Jared took the stage followed by Jensen and then by the both of them. Again, a full recount of this is something for another blog. After the stage time, was the autographing.
I found Jensen to be a little reserved, but very sweet. When I went in for the photo op, I was a bit nervous. (OK, really pretty nervous. Yes, people. I do get nervous.) So I told him that I was nervous, and he said “You’re doing OK.” I did get a chuckle out of him when I was leaving and said something to the effect of “well I didn’t faint so I’ve got that going for me.”
On stage he was comfortable and answered the questions graciously and occasionally with a bit of humor. I did notice that he reuses some of his funny lines from previous cons, but I don’t think anyone was complaining! He did agree to do “Blue Steele” after a brief protest, so we were all pretty happy!
And during the autograph session, I thanked him for all the long hours he does, and he said that he got out early on Friday, around 8:00PM. He said that anytime they are finished with a hint of daylight in the sky it’s a really early day.
As for Jared, like I said over in Gab’s blog, he was made for these cons. He was relaxed, funny and genuinely nice and outgoing. When I said that I was nervous at his photo shoot, he immediately said, “Don’t be nervous!” He patted my back and said, “you just have to smile.” And when I left I told him thank you, and he met my eyes (he looked slightly concerned for me, what a sweetie!) and said “thank you so much for coming.”
On stage he just rolled with it. Someone asked him to say “I lost my shoe”, and once again, he looked like a sad little boy. Then he started to talk to the next person, and broke off laughing. He told us that the woman who asked him to say that just lost her shoe. He was a little less serious than Jensen.
And when they were both together, Jensen had just finished his solo, so there were still some left over questions for Jensen. Jared was so funny ribbing everybody about it just as if he were a younger brother who’s older brother usually gets more attention. And when someone said “Hello Jared and Jensen”, he stopped everything to point out that he was first.
Jensen had a slightly different dynamic when they were onstage together. He was comfortable by himself, but with Jared he seemed a little less self aware, and a little more in it for the fun. It was great to see the both of them together.
During the autograph line, Jared stopped and looked at the scrapbook page I made for him to sign and complemented me on it. When I thanked him for the long hours that he does, he countered with the fact that it must have taken me some hours to do these pages. Again, very nice and relaxed.
And when I was in line “behind the curtain”, there were a couple of girls who had bought mini-banners for the boys to sign. They gave each boy the other’s banner, and the guys were putting goatees and eye patches on each other. They then asked to see what the other had done, and were very amused.
Here are the pages that I made for the boys. Sam. Dean. Thanks to everyone who helped me with the quotes, and thanks to Mos who made suggestions while I was working on the pages.
OK, this had been a bit longer than I expected, but I just wanted to share some of my experiences with you all while they were still fresh. I’m still working on the amazing pictures that schroan, Met and Mary took to make them available for you all. Stay tuned, and thanks to everyone at Creation, all the celebrities who attended, my TVG friends, the great people we met there (like the wonderfully kind girls who brought Plastic!Priestly and let us all take pictures with him) and my poor husband who drove with me so I didn’t have to pay for a plane and got caught up on his work in the room while I went off to be a fangirl.
Thank you.
|
TVGuide Links:
|
|
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 1:55 AM
|
Panns,
You did a fantastic job with those pages of the boys and the blog for Kripke. Thanks also for sharing your experience at the con. I'm so glad you had a good time.
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 2:07 AM
|
Thanks for sharing, Panns! I'm so glad all went well and everyone made it to the con. I know sometimes schedules force some of the stars to cancel, but it sounds like everyone was present at this one.
I would love to meet all of them some day, but especially The Kripke himself! We're not worthy!!!!
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 2:13 AM
|
Panny
After seeing the length of your blog, i came to save it for later, and read just a little, and then a little more, and then some more until it was over and i wanted more, even though you've already given us so much. I sounds like you had a great time!
So, have you caught the convention bug? Do you want more?
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 3:14 AM
|
Hi Panns,
thank you so much for sharing your experience and observations. I am so glad you had a good time and what a wonderful husband. Happy to share the time with you and yet give you space to enjoy yourself.
The scrapbook, the the Dean/Sam ones are brilliant. I haven't even got half the imagination for that but they were so well done.
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 7:30 AM
|
Hey Panns,
Nice recap.
I totally agree. Jared is warm and wonderful. He really talks to you like he has known you for a long time. Jensen is very stiff. I think he is just shy and had a bad experience in England when he got jumped by a fan girl.
Jared hugs everyone and smiles.
As he is doing to me here. It makes you melt.
Frederic Lehne is a totally cool guy. In Chicago, he sat at our table ( next to me) and he was singing with us. I was in the elevator with him and he shook my hand and talked to me. Very cool dude.
I met SJ and Met in Chicago. We had a lot of fun.
SJ and I were outside when the limo came to take the guys to the airport.
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 9:00 AM
|
Sounds like you had a great time, panns! Love the pages you made on Sam and Dean. 
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 10:02 AM
|
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, panns! I love reading about others' experiences and it only makes me that much more excited for Texas and Chicago. *sigh* Is it June yet?!
Unfortunately our filtering system or whatever at work won't allow me to look at your links (except the TVG one!) so I can't admire your work right now. That's cool that Jared appreciated it!
...and we’ll sort out who is going to be the official storyteller *coughMarycough* Gotta tell ya that this cracked me up!
Thanks again, panns!
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 10:36 AM
|
*supersonic squee for the fun you had*
And a special squee for your hubby for being so good to you.
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 10:38 AM
|
Thank you all, I really had fun working on those scrapbook pages.
This really is just a drive-by post (I'll post a full response later!) to say that I really shouldn't blog late at night. I totally missed putting Mary's name down as one of the awesome TVG people that I met!
Nothing like con-induced lack of sleep to shut down the brain! *facepalm*
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 10:48 AM
|
Jensen is very stiff.
This is the first I've heard of this. Everything I've read said he was more relaxed and loose than ever-even bopping to an i-pod before the photo-ops-wish I could have seen that!
Thanks for sharing, Panns!
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 11:10 AM
|
|
Panns: The posters you made are amazing! I especially love the one that has John, Bobby, Meg, Ash, etc. Wonderful job! I'm so glad you had a great time.
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 11:59 AM
|
|
What an awesome review!! It sounds like you had a wonderful time!!! *squees*
|
|
Apr 1, 2008 12:33 PM
|
|
|
