Charity Auction: Misha’s Eye Mask

At the Salute to Supernatural Convention in Pittsburgh earlier this month, Misha Collins told us about his eye mask. He explained he received a toiletries set a few years ago, and it included an eye mask. He tucked that mask into his bag, and he wears it while traveling.

As he described it: “It looks like an oil rag that one would see at a gas station… so disgustingly filthy.”

A few minutes later, Richard and Rob brought said mask to Misha onstage.

Rob’s face really says it all…

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Eventually, Misha threw the mask into the crowd. Well, “throw” is a strong word. Think of it more like an attempt to throw the mask, much like he attempted to throw that paper airplane at Jared and Jensen a few years back. Suffice it to say, the mask did not go very far. In fact, it landed on the floor in front of the first row.

And most of the people in the first row actually just watched it fall to the floor, perhaps cringing a little in disgust.  An inspired  young woman in the first row did, however, reach down and pick it up. She laid it gently on her lap. And Misha’s panel continued. Afterwards, that young woman approached us, telling us she’d like to give it to charity, and asking if we could help. We talked about some options, and the plan began to take shape.

The young woman asked Misha to sign the mask during autos. At that time, she explained to him that she would be giving it to us to auction, with the proceeds to benefit Random Acts. At first, he was a bit surprised. “Why would anyone want this mask? It’s so nasty.” But despite his skepticism, he signed the mask and happily approved her choice to donate it for a charity auction. Hey, it’s for a good cause!

So without further ado…

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Charity Auction: Misha’s Eye Mask! See Misha in your dreams every time you close your eyes!

Okay, but seriously, all proceeds benefit Random Acts and their Hurricane Relief Effort.

Bonus!

Also included is a copy of Family Don’t End With Blood, which includes a chapter written by Misha! (And twelve other Supernatural actors, who all told their personal stories about how the show and the fandom have impacted them). Every copy of Family Don’t End With Blood also benefits Random Acts, and Attitudes in Reverse. Misha, Jared, Jensen and everyone who wrote chapters are proud of that — and of the powerful chapters they wrote too. (If you don’t win this auction, you can still purchase a copy of the book and make a contribution to Random Acts – links at the top of the page).

Here’s Misha in his Family Don’t End With Blood shirt inspiring you. How can you not be inspired by that face??

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This auction is worldwide, and we will pay for the shipping!

The auction runs for 10 days beginning September 26th, 2017.

Please support this auction, Random Acts, and the Hurricane Relief Effort.

Misha’s Eye Mask Auction

Thank you for your support!

Lynn & Kim

#SPNFamily

 

Supernatural’s Gil McKinney and Osric Chau – On Writing Books, Releasing New Music and New Seasons of Television!

 

It’s been a while since I had a chance to sit down and chat with Gil McKinney and Osric Chau, two of my favorite guest stars on Supernatural (as Henry Winchester and Kevin Tran) so I was happy to catch up with them at the Supernatural convention in Chicago this summer.

It’s been a busy year for Gil – he has a new baby, wrote a chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood, and just released his first EP (How Was I To Know), produced by fellow SPN Family member and talented singer, Jason Manns. After a wildly successful kickstarter, the EP was released this summer to rave reviews. Family Don’t End With Blood, was released this summer as well, and many fans have said that Gil’s chapter has inspired them.

It’s been a busy year for Osric as well, who also wrote an inspiring and personal chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood. And of course because he’s a regular on the smash hit Dirk Gently, on BBC America. As we sat down to chat in Chicago, filming was just beginning on Season 2, which starts airing next month, and Dirk Gently was about to conquer Comic Con in the gigantic Hall H!

Gil and Osric did a panel together at this convention, something they haven’t done in a while. I was there for their first joint panel, several years ago, when they haltingly started to get to know each other after being thrown together somewhat randomly, and I watched as they developed a genuine fondness and a lot of chemistry. It was a joy to see them onstage together again.

A fan asked about the book they both wrote chapters in.

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Lynn and Kim do PittCon – Part 3, Jared and Jensen Sunday!

Sunday at Pittcon was J2 day, as always. It would have been J3 day, except Jeffrey Dean Morgan wasn’t able to come. Though I guess it was still J3 day, since Jim Beaver filled in for him last minute.

Lynn: I still get nervous on Sundays, even after all these years and even after working with all three of these J’s on writing their chapters of Family Don’t End With Blood. I guess that’s a good thing though – if my tummy is ever totally okay on a con Sunday, that might mean it’s time to hand in my fangirl card. I live tweeted the morning gold panel including some phone pics, but didn’t bother taking out my camera – since Kim was sitting right beside me.

Kim: I don’t usually take a lot of pictures during the gold panel. Partly because it is quiet in the theater, and I suddenly feel self conscious about the clicking of my camera. But mostly I don’t take a lot of pics because Jensen tends to stand right in front of the mic, which is frustrating, and Jared tends to move around a lot… so basically most of the gold panel pictures suck. Unless you stan the mic. Lol

 

Jensen confessed right off the bat that he was tired, since he couldn’t sleep the night before. Even reading something boring didn’t work.

Jensen: Like Jared’s texts…

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PittCon – The Saturday Night Special

Post and Photos by Kim Prior

I have written several articles about the Saturday Night Special and my love for these events. I don’t think I could find the words to say it any differently this time – I simply love Rob and Billy and Mike and Stephen. I love to watch Mike play that guitar. I love to watch Stephen as he passionately pounds the drums. I love to watch Billy pour his heart and soul into his guitar. And I love to watch Rob sing, and dance, and smile as he commands the center of the stage. Simply put, Louden Swain gives me joy. This concert gives me joy. I have said it before, and I know that I will say it many more times to come… the Saturday Night Special is special because of Louden Swain.

The concert in Pittsburgh apparently had some technical issues – mics not working properly, guitar issues, and so on. But let’s be honest, I didn’t care, not even a little. These guys could come on stage and sing the phone book completely a capella and I’d be so okay with that.

So without further ado, and without a lot of commentary, here’s a recap of PittCon’s Saturday Night Special.

The night got off to a rockin’ start as Jake Abel introduced the band.

The first song of the night was “Present Time.”

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Lynn and Kim do PittCon – Part 1, Friday and Saturday

Lynn didn’t make it to the Supernatural con in Pittsburgh until Saturday, thanks to having to work all day on Friday (boo!!), so this first part about Friday is all Kim.

Kim:

Conventions are always super busy, jam-packed weekends. Panels. Photo ops. Autographs. Sometimes I do meet & greets. Hanging out with old friends. Meeting new friends. It is a full schedule, to say the least. For the convention in Pittsburgh, I added another thing… I helped Lynn with her book sales (Family Don’t End With Blood) at her table in the vendor area. How many ways can I spell exhausted? I have newly found respect for vendors, for Lynn. Working in the vendor area and trying to do all the convention things is beyond exhausting. And for the record – I would totally do it all again. And again.

Lynn: I have that in writing now. Excellent… *evil cackle*

Kim: Thank Chuck for my dear friends Kim and Stacy, for helping me set up Thursday night, for sitting with me at the table all weekend, for giving me the time I needed for photo ops and autographs (and a meet & greet with Kim & Briana). Thank Chuck they were there to make sure I had water and food, and a few stolen moments to breathe and pull myself together for photo ops.

That said, entering the airplane hangar – at least that’s what the theater feels like – to sit down for a panel was a like entering my zone… sitting down, taking out the camera, watching the panels through the comfort of my lens… yes, this is where I belong.

Rob could not be there on Friday, so we had just Richa…

No.

That is one million percent Inaccurate. Wrong.

When did the word ‘just’ become an adjective? When did it begin to carry that negativity? Every day of my life, I have to tell people that, no, I don’t have a job, that I’m ‘just’ a mom… as if being ‘just’ a mom is somehow less, somehow unworthy. Sure, the popular phrase “Just Do it” implies a positive message of strength and endurance, but usually adding the word ‘just’ to describe anything is somehow, less. So can we stop saying that? I’ll stop using the word to describe myself, and ya’ll stop using the word to describe yourselves, and let’s just simply stop using the word as an adjective of negativity, ok?

So starting over…

Rob could not be there on Friday because he was attending a film festival. As a result, we were treated to the impeccable hosts of the utter effervescence that is Richard Speight, Jr, along with the always delightful Jason Manns, and the incredibly talented Louden Swain band members Billy Moran, Michael Borja, and Stephen Norton. We were given witty banter, and fabulous music, and as Richard put it, we were in the “warehouse of fun” and it was awesome.

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Behind the Scenes of Supernatural with Robbie Thompson

One of the absolute highlights of this year’s Comic Con for me was sitting down to chat with Robbie Thompson, gifted comic writer and screenwriter who wrote some of my very favorite episodes of my very favorite show. That would be Supernatural, in case you didn’t know. Which is pretty much impossible unless you’ve just stumbled over this blog for the first time.

I attended Robbie’s panel on Intersectional Feminism in Comics, which was awesome and entirely inspiring, so we were all in a good mood afterwards. We decided to try to find a room where there weren’t a million people around, and took a bunch of friends with us – Laurena, Candice, Anne and Kamila – who were down with listening in to our epic interview. They will henceforth be referred to as the Peanut Gallery (‘PG’). For the most part, they were PG. The most part. Just sayin.

After several false starts traversing the ginormous convention center, including being barred from using the press room for our interview, we found an empty room with lots of empty round tables. Robbie, ever the intrepid one, shrugged and said, ‘how about this one?’

Occasionally a Comic Con staffer would come in, take a look at our oh-so-professional interview in progress, and quietly back out. Score!

I start the interview by tossing my handwritten notes about what I’m dying to ask and my little vintage audio recorder on the table.

R: (points to Lois Lane like tape recorder) Look at this, so professional..

L: Hey, it’s ancient, it’s done a million Supernatural interviews.

R: Uh oh, look at this, guys…(points to what appears to be a big stack of questions, a la Inside the Actor’s Studio)  There’s going to be some Bernard Pivot in there. There may be some things I say off the record…

L: Of course, you know I’m good with that. (but honestly? There weren’t many!)

R: Okay let’s do this!

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Sunday with Jared and Jensen at Minncon 2017

Sunday is J2 Day at Creation Supernatural cons, this time joined by another Winchester (Mary, aka Samantha Smith) with the day introduced by Rich and Rob and closed out by Ruth Connell and Louden Swain.

The Sunday morning gold panel saw a rather sleepy looking Jared and Jensen joining us – and of course the very first question asked was about that “this is a bad idea” Instagram video Jensen posted of him and Jared on Friday night.

J2: nope.

As in, they declined to answer on the grounds that it might incriminate them. Or, you know, get them incarcerated.

All kidding aside, Jensen and Jared were worried about their families in Austin as Hurricane Harvey began to takes its incredible toll on Texas. Jensen took a call from Danneel while they were onstage, Jared hovering over his shoulder.

This eventually resulted in shenanigans as Jared tried to grab Jensen’s phone (or something) and Jensen spun around and around to avoid him, then backed up like ‘here ya go’. #boys

 

Glad to report that Danneel and Gen and the kids are fine, and were all having a ‘sleepover’. In the wine cellar.

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Supernatural Minncon Friday and Saturday – Misha, SNS and More!

 

The Supernatural convention in Minneapolis is notable for a couple of things. First, it’s in the grandest theater on the whole tour – an actual slanted floor tilted and cushioned seated amphitheater style theater with two clamshell balconies that open up like magic on Sunday for J2 Day. The stage is so big that some of the guests aren’t quite sure what to do with it and it makes the Saturday Night Special seem like a rock show in a bona fide concert hall – and Louden Swain and guests know exactly what to do with that!

The convention center, and the city itself actually, is also notable for being connected by a series of hamster trail elevated tunnels that allow you to make your way from the hotels to the convention center without being pelted by the inevitable wind and rain. My hotel was also playing host to a furry convention, so we had furries and Supernatural tee-shirted fans sharing space and high fiving in the hallways. I was struggling to transport my hundreds of copies of Family Don’t End With Blood the mile and a half (okay okay, exaggeration, but it felt like that…) of hamster trails to the convention center when a very nice young man at the furry convention offered to help. He pushed the overloaded handcart the entire way to the convention center, while we chatted about what our two fandoms had in common and why nobody should be ashamed of what they’re passionate about.

I was in the vendor room throughout the con, and was so honored to meet many people who had read Family Don’t End With Blood and been inspired by what the actors and the fans shared in their personal essays. I also was thrilled to collaborate with Jodi from Eldwenne’s Fantasy – she created an original Women of SPN – FDEWB necklace that I adore, and was kind enough to give one to me. The necklace symbolizes that for the women of Supernatural, family means more than just blood – there’s a blue backdrop that matches the cover of the book, hugged tight by silver to symbolize the found family that surrounds the Winchesters, and black for Baby. And of course the drop of blood red. Gorgeous. Jodi is giving $5 off the necklace to anyone who purchases the book, or $10 at a con!

The con kicked off on Friday with Rob and Rich a bit overwhelmed by the amount of greenery onstage – not just the usual couple of dead trees, but a whole forest of them, along with some equally-dead potted plants.

Rob and Rich rearranged them, made a makeshift Supernatural Christmas tree, and generally had way too much fun with inanimate things. They even had a Christmas story, with Richard sitting crosslegged on the stage.

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