Heroes and Legends con, Belfast

[phazedout]

con report.. day one

Got up early had a leasuirly breakfast and wandered over to the oddessy arena after brushing teeth etc, enough of my personal life, it makes for long, boring novels on the American market but doesn't tell you what I did.

Well got in early and negotiated my way past the entry drones and out on to the floor of the "Petting zoo". That title part inspired by Pat Tallman and her comment about sitting behind a table at conventions.

I chatted briefly with one or two of the folks I didn't recognise but Colin Baker wasn't there yet so I moved on to the reason I Was there, PAtricia Tallman and Claudia Christian. I was a little intimidated I Admit and kinda tounge tied so I didn't chat for long, I'm looking forward to chatting with them tomorrow evening at the pub night. I did spend quite a while nattering with the lovely Jennifer Blanc, partner of Michael Beihne, (kyle reese in Terminator, also hicks in Aliens and many many more things.)

She really put me at my ease and then, while chatting to her the guy in the Indiana Jones costume started cracking his whip, it was really *really* loud and Jennifer to be honest looked a wee bittie bit scared.

Then PAtricia Tallman stepped up! she shouted up a tthe guy, telling him to stop and that there were kids here!, she really took control and he cowered and ran away like a scared little boy, way to go Pat!

I chatted to Jennifer for another wee while then wandered over and had a very nice talk with Kristian Nairn who plays Hodor in Game of Thrones, he's a local Belfast boy and I joked that he has a FRank Kelly level of Dialogue akin to Father Jack! he agreed and said it's an easy line to learn but the physical demands of the Job are quite large - plus the actor playing Bran is getting heavier

I comission a wolverine (for your info Naomi in shorts only) from a young artist from Clare, Declan Shavley, we chatted briefly about x-men which is his first love. I had an unexpected encounter with Malcolm from discworld fandom between Q&As. But to return to my chronology, I watched Brian Muirs Q&A and asked him a question I have garnered from chats with Bernard Pearson i.e. the curse of arthritis which can inflict many sculptors, Brian being someone who has sculpted, amongst other things, the original darth vader mask and armour. Asked him about best and worst materials to work in also, he like Bernard seems to prefer clay but he commented onm the benefits of polystyrene for movie work as you don't need to cast it or prep, you just need a sharp knife and an eye for detail.

Next after that was the Q&A with Colin Baker, a perfect gent who seemed to love his tim eon Dr who and discussed at length the issue with a controller of the BBC at the time and his desire to kill the show entirely as he didn't seem to like it, also the mismanagement of BC enterprises in that the money a show made from overseas sales and merchandising (even limited as it was then) didn't go back to the department that made it but rather, in to the general BBC coffers which meant those who made the show had no incentive to continue working on it.

After the Q&A I met my friend Ed Ashby and we went for a wee meal and to see Michael and Jennifer movie "the victim". It's a grindhouse style movie production but both of them took questions before and after the film. They were most gracious.

After the movie I popped briefly in to a pub with Ed and chatted a wee bit about what we'd seen. Tomorrow I won't be going down as early as I've met pretty much everyone that was there apart form those who didn't appear today and are only there tomorrow and Sunday.

I've decided that despite missing the Claudia/Pat Q&A I am going to head home on Sunday, it's not the sort of Con I'm used to and I'l have no real friends there on Sunday so am going to eat breakfast int he hotel then wander home.

Expect an equally long report for tomorrow I hope facebook lets me post this but am copying and pasting in to a differnt document in case it refuses it as too long. This will be largely replicated in a post on the discworldstamps forum for those of my friends who aren't on this medium .
Alan

[phazedout]

So here we go with Giant status update no 2, Heroes and Legends Convention, Day 2.

Becuase I'd spoken already with pretty much everyone I wanted (or needed) to chat with I wnadered in a wee bittie bit late to the whole thing, met up with Ed Ashby and 4 friends of his form Dublin, including Darren and 3 others whose names alas didn't stick in me head, I escorted them around the place and pointed out where stuff was also chatting briefly with PJ Holden who kindly drew a nice Judge Dredd for me.

We then went in to a 12 pm Q&A session with Patricia Tallman and Claudia Christian. They totally circumvented the moderator, stealing his microphone and answering questions from the audience, let's face it, who needs to introduce these two people to a sci fi crowd, right? They were after all the reason I undertook the hellish four hour drive up to Belfast in the first place. They had great energy and upon being asked which show they'd like to work on they responded in perfect unison "game of thrones".

We wandered around for another bit then up to Forbidden planet through a freakin' hailstorm then went back in and caught the end of Michael and Jennifer's Q&A. We then went carefully down (iugh steep lecture hall stairs with no handrail, not a fun vertigo thing for me) and sat front and centre for Nick Roache's talk, mostly becuase the guys up form Dublin for the day knew him and wanted to heckle. Nick's primary work has been, to the joy of the little boy inside him, Transformers, he's also designing a cartoon style drawing for all 11 doctors (although he's not been commissioned for all of them yet).

After we heckled him for a bit and wandered around the assorted movie prop display areas I haded back to my hotel for a quick nap a shower, shave and then off to what to me was the highlight of my evening, the semi private meet and greet with Patricia and Claudia. I gotta say it was funn, I figured it'd be all professional, quiet meal, an hour or so in their company and we'd go our seprate ways,. Nothing could be further form the truth, they hung out with me and 5 other people for well over four hours, we went on a pub crawl, Meade was drunk plus Pat filmed us for possible inclusion in an upcoming Babylon 5 documentary, they were looking for unique questions to be asked. I tried but I don't think i did very well, still scored some nice swag, with signed piccies of Claudia and Pat, as well as a copy of Claudia's CD which I haven't listened to yet but I will.

So overall a fantastic weekend, I'm sure you're eager for details of what went on in all the time we spent with Pat and Claudia but what happens at the night out *stays* at the night out. Thanks again to emerald Garisson for organisng the event to all the guests who appeared at it and a special and specific mention to the wonderful and understanding to a poor drunken, lost southerner staff at the IBIS city centre hotel, a special mention must go to Clare Keating (no relation) who went well above and beyond the call in looking after me and accomodating my strange quesitons and sudden changes to schedule and other things. I've stayed in four an d five star hotels around the planet and never been treated this well as I was in this "budget" one. Let me tell you, cheap dosn't mean poor service, it was exemplary.

Then I got up this morning and dragged meself down to the hotel lobby long enough to manage breakfast before going back upstairs and collapsing in to bed for another wee bit, I drove the frankly exhausting 4 hours home and then slept like the dead until 7.

So yes, a fun weekend, much money was spent and books, CDs dvds and other things were purchased. totally worth the drive through the crappy roads of Sligo, Cavan and for some odd reason, Leitrim.

As with the previous one this is being posted to both Facebook and discworldstamps.co.uk. I may throw it up on jmsnews.com/forums as well.

Alan

[babylonlurker]

Very nice report, Phazed

Good to hear you had so much fun.

I will be doing a bit of con's this year, I will see if I can make such a detailed report myself.

[DGTWoodward]

And so great jealousy ensued!!!!