When academics go to Hollywood!
Seacon started off appropriately – for an SPN con, that is. Richard came out in a shirt featuring a red cock – a rooster, people! Which set the stage for lots of talk about worshipping at the #HolyChurchOfDick. In honor of Seattle, he sang rules and regulations as Kurt Cobain and spent a lot of time ‘warning’ us about how dirty this con was likely to be. Pretty sure no one ran for the hills. Maybe grabbed their cameras.
The Saturday Night Special. Let me break that down for you… Yes, this is a concert that takes place on Saturday. And yes, this concert takes place at night. But let’s examine the word “special.” You could read the word as if it were a noun, a word which denotes a thing, such as an item on a menu.
“I’ll have the Saturday Night Special, please, with no onions and mayo on the side.”
Or perhaps a Signature Cocktail.
“C’mon, ladies, let’s go dancing at (insert your favorite club’s name here) and consume copious amounts of their Saturday Night Special.”
I will concede, from a grammatical point of view, that the use of the word ‘Special’ in “Saturday Night Special” is indeed a noun. However, in this context, the word ‘Special’ is not a noun. It is, instead, an adjective. Webster’s defines ‘special’ as an adjective: “of a kind different from others, distinctive, unique, extraordinary.” And that, my friends, is the Saturday Night Special. This is a concert that is different from all other concerts. It is distinctive and unique. It is extraordinary.
I have said it before. In fact, I have said this so many times that she may be quite tired of hearing it. Oh well. I just have to say it again – Thanks to Lynn for allowing me this incredible opportunity to write a few articles for her!
The Salute to Supernatural Convention in Nashville makes my 5th con, and once again, I was not disappointed. The staff and volunteers from Creation Entertainment truly put on a wonderful weekend. The lines moved quickly. Questions were answered with smiles. I am so very impressed by the continued enthusiasm these volunteers show, even on Sunday evening, even after working crazy-long hours. If you have the chance to attend one of these cons, please make the time to thank these people for making your experience the wonderful thing that it is.
The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center served as the venue in Nashville, and I thought it was similar to the venue in Vegas… and by similar, I mean both venues are HUGE. I have an app on my phone that tracks my steps, and wowza – I averaged 8,200 steps each day of the con, walking nearly 4 miles each day! Not gonna lie, yes, I did get lost a time or two, or four. Who’s counting.
Finally getting back to finishing up the posts on Pascon after getting (pleasantly) waylaid by chats with Richard Speight and reviewing the episode he just directed. So where was I? Oh yes, Sunday. Sunday is usually J2 day, but at Pascon, it was J3 day! (Richard made a joke about that sounding dirty but hey, Richard, you said it…)
We also got another Mark Sheppard panel, which I was grateful for, since I missed his panel the day before while chatting with Matt Cohen. Mark’s trademark mix of snarky and genuinely appreciative of fandom is always a treat.
The snarky:
Fan: What did Dean and Crowley do on their bromance adventures?
Mark: Do I have to write your fanfic for you?
Where did we leave off? Oh, right, with Tim Omundson being awesome, both onstage and at karaoke. And with him being able to pull off both the gravity of a role like Cain and the humor of a role like the king in Galavant.
At some point in the panel, he put on glasses, and then he was suddenly a version of brilliant (and bloody hot) professor. Who knows what other iterations of Tim Omundson we haven’t discovered yet?
Saturday happened way too early (or possibly Friday ended way too late) but it turned out to be an amazing day. First up was Sebastian Roche, who really knows how to wake up a room full of bleary fangirls and fanboys. Sebastian rarely actually answers a question, but intrepid fans line up to ask him some anyway. Despite the lack of answering, Sebastian’s panels are always entertaining – mostly because he’s a great entertainer. He sings, he dances on chairs, he tosses around innuendo in response to just about anything, and he generally keeps you both laughing and incredulous (unless you’re dancing yourself and joining him in singing ‘Get Lucky’…)
Interestingly, Sebastian in ‘real life’ is one of the most intelligent and thoughtful actors out there. If you follow him on social media, you know how passionate he is about political and social change; more than once, I’ve learned about something important from his tweets. I rather like the way he can express both sides of himself, depending on the platform. Keep dancing, Sebastian!
More beautiful photos from VegasCon, mostly taken by the talented and awesome @MamaPrior. With some help from RitaKF and a few by us. Enjoy.
Friday was a laid back day, kicking off with Curtis Armstrong, who is amazingly nice in real life for someone who plays a jerk like Metatron. (If you don’t believe me, check out our interview with him by clicking his name on the sidebar). Curtis fielded questions from his entire film and television history, with fans getting a chance to geek out over everything from Revenge of the Nerds all the way through to Supernatural. He says that Metatron is one of his top five roles ever, which is really saying something!
Curtis is a fanboy himself, and has been a Sherlock Holmes fan forever, which he proudly proclaimed onstage. He’s also funny as hell. Example:
The crowd groaned when Curtis mentioned Gary Busey.
Curtis: What, did he do something to the boys?
I’m so torn. Do I gush first about the writing of this episode that laid the groundwork for so many powerful scenes? Or the brilliant cinematography and direction and set dec and visual effects? Or do I marvel at the acting performances of ALL of the main players, who collectively blew me away and kept me so sucked in that I was holding my breath for most of the second half of the episode?
Not a bad dilemma to face on a Friday morning. I think I’ll gush about all of the above.