WizardWorld Philly Con Report
Wow, I haven't done one of these in ages...
I came to Philadelphia for WizardWorld, because Katee was going to be here. There was some last minute reshuffling of things — Katee was supposed to be here Saturday but got moved to Sunday due to scheduling conflicts — but it went pretty well all things considered.
There wasn't any stage appearance. The whole thing was a signing, scheduled to run from noon to four. Ouch. I got there a bit after 11 and staked out a place near the front of the line, which eventually snaked about a third of the way around the (quite sizable) convention center hall we were in. I had a ton of things for Katee to sign, since this is one of my last opportunities to see her. She confirmed that she will be attending Dragon*Con this year and that yes, it will be her last convention. She said (I didn't record this so it's a slight paraphrase) that she did cons for the fans of the show and since the show is ending, she will no longer be doing cons.
I gave her a bunch of stuff, and she signed a bunch of things for me: a model of Scar from Diamond Select, a poster of Grant Gould's, a poster from a guy at the show that he made just for the show, the motorcycle shot from Interview magazine ("That's the only time you'll ever see me in a bikini with Grace Park and Tricia Helfer!" — and yes, that is her Harley), one of the brand-new cards from the Season 3 set that just came out, the TV Guide picture, the famous picture of her choking me, and a couple of other pictures. And I got a hug, which freaked out the security guard, who, however, apparently decided from that that I was okay and therefore didn't give me shit for standing around for the rest of the afternoon taking pictures.
Towards the end she went away to do some "con stuff" (after all the line had been cleared) and then came back to sign for some stragglers who thought "noon to four" really meant noon to four. :-) Then the handlers all shuffled her off to the Ladies' Room while I stood there and chatted with another photographer, who then noticed a bag sitting on the table: The bag I had given Katee with all of her goodies in it. And, as it turned out, all the other various goodies that other people had given her as well! Ack! Fortunately, they were still in the restroom — probably fixing makeup :-) — so we were able to get it over to the security people before she came out. (Yes, they stationed security people outside the restroom while she was in there. Good move, seriously.) Then she got whisked off to the airport. As far as I could tell, she flew in last night, got up this morning, did the show, and then hopped on an airplane to go right back to work. I hope she gets some sleep on the plane!
Regarding the "no more cons" thing, since I know that this has caused some controversy in fandom. What she said to me was that she did the cons for the fans of the show, and now that the show is ending, she wants to move on from the show. I get the impression that if, for example, they had had conventions for fans of The Education of Max Bickford, she would have done cons for that. If she does another show that there are cons for, she'd likely do more cons. She is not in any way distancing herself from science fiction nor is she dissing sci-fi fans; she has repeatedly said that sci-fi fans are the most loyal fans and that she's enjoyed having the opportunity to meet them. Sadly, for whatever reasons, they don't do cons for non-sci-fi shows. (I've always found this odd, by the way — wouldn't soap opera cons be a big business??)
I have a metric ton of pictures and will be uploading them soon. I'm still here for one more day — as a guitar player for more than 35 years, with more than a dozen Martin guitars in my collection, I can't pass up the opportunity to go visit the Martin Guitar factory in Nazareth, just up the road a ways, so I am renting a car tomorrow morning and driving out there for that.
I came to Philadelphia for WizardWorld, because Katee was going to be here. There was some last minute reshuffling of things — Katee was supposed to be here Saturday but got moved to Sunday due to scheduling conflicts — but it went pretty well all things considered.
There wasn't any stage appearance. The whole thing was a signing, scheduled to run from noon to four. Ouch. I got there a bit after 11 and staked out a place near the front of the line, which eventually snaked about a third of the way around the (quite sizable) convention center hall we were in. I had a ton of things for Katee to sign, since this is one of my last opportunities to see her. She confirmed that she will be attending Dragon*Con this year and that yes, it will be her last convention. She said (I didn't record this so it's a slight paraphrase) that she did cons for the fans of the show and since the show is ending, she will no longer be doing cons.
I gave her a bunch of stuff, and she signed a bunch of things for me: a model of Scar from Diamond Select, a poster of Grant Gould's, a poster from a guy at the show that he made just for the show, the motorcycle shot from Interview magazine ("That's the only time you'll ever see me in a bikini with Grace Park and Tricia Helfer!" — and yes, that is her Harley), one of the brand-new cards from the Season 3 set that just came out, the TV Guide picture, the famous picture of her choking me, and a couple of other pictures. And I got a hug, which freaked out the security guard, who, however, apparently decided from that that I was okay and therefore didn't give me shit for standing around for the rest of the afternoon taking pictures.
Towards the end she went away to do some "con stuff" (after all the line had been cleared) and then came back to sign for some stragglers who thought "noon to four" really meant noon to four. :-) Then the handlers all shuffled her off to the Ladies' Room while I stood there and chatted with another photographer, who then noticed a bag sitting on the table: The bag I had given Katee with all of her goodies in it. And, as it turned out, all the other various goodies that other people had given her as well! Ack! Fortunately, they were still in the restroom — probably fixing makeup :-) — so we were able to get it over to the security people before she came out. (Yes, they stationed security people outside the restroom while she was in there. Good move, seriously.) Then she got whisked off to the airport. As far as I could tell, she flew in last night, got up this morning, did the show, and then hopped on an airplane to go right back to work. I hope she gets some sleep on the plane!
Regarding the "no more cons" thing, since I know that this has caused some controversy in fandom. What she said to me was that she did the cons for the fans of the show, and now that the show is ending, she wants to move on from the show. I get the impression that if, for example, they had had conventions for fans of The Education of Max Bickford, she would have done cons for that. If she does another show that there are cons for, she'd likely do more cons. She is not in any way distancing herself from science fiction nor is she dissing sci-fi fans; she has repeatedly said that sci-fi fans are the most loyal fans and that she's enjoyed having the opportunity to meet them. Sadly, for whatever reasons, they don't do cons for non-sci-fi shows. (I've always found this odd, by the way — wouldn't soap opera cons be a big business??)
I have a metric ton of pictures and will be uploading them soon. I'm still here for one more day — as a guitar player for more than 35 years, with more than a dozen Martin guitars in my collection, I can't pass up the opportunity to go visit the Martin Guitar factory in Nazareth, just up the road a ways, so I am renting a car tomorrow morning and driving out there for that.