ass-lazy tropicana of the mind
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2002-06-12
Kate realizes the truth.
Sometimes you have to admit something to yourself.
You like to pretend otherwise, of course. You're not really one of "those". You prefer the character, not the actor, because, after all, the character is the product of the writers, and the actor is just the puppet that narrates it, right? You're a fan, not a Fan, and while you respect the actor, sure, you're not really a fan of them.
And then something slaps you across the face, and you have to face reality.
After this weekend, I am a Charisma Carpenter fan. There's no way around it.
�
See, I used to think she was kinda ditzy, kinda thick, not really that interesting, just another Southern Californian actress who wants all the usual things and has the usual life. But actually listening to her, and seeing her, and seeing the body language and style and discovering who she is...
Yeah, it changed my opinion.
If I knew her, I think I'd be in love with her. Just a little bit.
She was very gracious and very sweet and answered questions nicely. She was vivid and yet restrained, wrapping her leather coat around her on Saturday nervously, anxiously. On Sunday, she felt that she was safe, that things were all right, and wore a sweatshirt instead.
She was gorgeous. Honey-blonde hair and bronze skin, quirked brown eyebrows and shining eyes. Elegant smiles and just the hint of cleavage in her white shirt and black coat. She wore Alexander McQueen heels and cocoa coloured fishnets under pantyhose.
God, I'm just...I'm still in awe of her. There's no way around that.
�
And I asked her so many questions. No one else was going up, and I had so many -- I couldn't help myself. What hair did you like the most? Who chooses your clothes for you and why can't you dress on the show as well as you're dressed now? Do you pay attention to the fans' debates about your character and you or do you ignore it all? What sitcom would you like to star in? What makeup do you wear?
She answered sweetly and kindly, actually blushing slightly when I told her she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She recognized me in the autograph queue and looked up from her production line autograph style (one person takes it from the fan, hands it to another person, who hands it to Charisma, who hands it to another person, who hands it back to the fan) and smiled. "Hey! Makeup geek! Hi!"
She shook Roz's hand for the autographed copy of Reading The Vampire Slayer that Roz made me give her -- Roz's shy blush apparently terribly endearing to her. No one else got to shake Charisma's hand -- no one else touched her.
She took a photo of the audience before she went to do autographs. I stood up and waved my hands.
I think I'm in love.
�
So the con was a lot of fun. I don't normally go in for autograph hounding and photo shoots with stars and, god, I so don't go in for stars in general. But I had fun at the panels with the stars and had a good laugh the entire time. Robin Sachs was a terribly sleazy man with many a dirty innuendo, Tony Head was charming and also quick with the filth, Danny Strong and George Hertzberg were amusing, and Charisma...well...I've gone on about Charisma, haven't I?
The dances were mildly amusing. I'm not normally for convention dances because, well, I kinda like having taste in my music, and there's only so much teenage-angst-bullshit-nu-metal boredom I can take before I need some Britney in my life. Which they played a fair amount of. They should've played more, but what can you do? Can't make a convention into your own private camp Christmas.
Bought a couple of things in the dealers' room, of course. Picked up a Cordelia mousepad for the husband (oh, if only I didn't have an optical mouse at work! I'd have one myself!), and a couple of the BtVS books for me. Laughed at the strange varieties of merchandise you could get -- bedding, beach towels, underwear, floppy disks...
Why on earth would you need a Buffy floppy disk? Who's still using them? Why? I don't understand!
Talked to Roz a lot. Worked out the religious backgrounds of most of the characters, based entirely on their concept of redemption. Angel, Cordelia, Xander, Drusilla, and Faith are obviously Catholic -- they have that vibe of epic suffering and epic redemption to go with it. Lindsey's a Southern revivalist -- getting down and dirty before gettin' redeemed, then getting down and dirty again before yet another redemption. Wesley, Giles, Lilah, and Spike don't give a damn about redemption because they know they are what they are -- the proper attitude of Anglicanism. Buffy's totally immune to the concept of redemption because who needs redemption when there's sunlight and beach-life?
Oz thinks that all life is suffering, and therefore he can never be properly redeemed. It took a lot of herbs and seeing Tara to prove that, didn't it?
Also saw Gunbunny, Meghan, and Soulstar. Helped them with costume changes after their entry as vampire hobbits in the fancy dress contest, which befuddled everyone. As it should, right?
Had a good time. Didn't like waiting in the queues, didn't like paying �2 for a coke, didn't like having one of the first sounds of the convention being Miss Bulimia 2002 puking up in the toilet stall next to me, but, hey, aside from that, I rather enjoyed it.
Wouldn't go to another star-studded con, though. Not without alternate programming. Because while it's great to listen to stars, it's not so great to sit and wait for an autograph because there's nothing else to do. Give me something else to do! Don't show me Spiderman from your bad MPGs on the tv screen!
We wanna discuss, let us discuss! Is that so hard?
�
Had fun on Monday too -- caught up with Roz at Forbidden Planet (after spending �60 on a t-shirt and Space Ghost action figures -- I'm so ashamed), and had coffee and a discussion. She came up with a fucked. up. Connor/Justine story idea, and I extrapolated on it to really drive her to write it. If it's finished, y'all will fall down dead with the wrongness of it all. Thankfully.
Then we headed to Harvey Nichols' for my lone face powder (which was cheaper than I thought it would be), then rushed to Uni-Qlo for the summer line -- lots of polo shirts, which I'm not into, but there was more than enough to stock up on.
Then we went to the Natural History Museum and looked at the dinosaurs and rode the earthquake simulator for awhile, and just had a fabulous time.
And that was my weekend. I've been showing off my autographed photo of me and Charisma to everyone, like the dork that I am, and people either go "Who is she?" or die in jealousy. As they should.
And I'm...a fan. And that's cool.
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