#30: Creation Farscape Convention Report Day 3 (Saturday)

Author: Lauren (OboeCrazy)

Click on any pic for a close up shot! Wana go back to Day One?  Or maybe to Day Two!  And of course Day Three!

Day 4 (Sunday)

Sunday was the big day. Sunday was "a Ben day". Sunday was the Opera day. And soon I would find out, Sunday would be so much more.

Sunday began with nerves. I had two photo ops with Ben Browder, one for myself and one with the entire SACC Burbank contingent. But first there was a lot of waiting to do. I sat with friends, pretending not to be nervous, trying to convincing myself I wasn't gonna be a dork.

Soon it was my turn. I did my photo with Mr. Browder, I smiled, I thanked him, and I left.

Holy dren, I wasn't a dork!

That would come in a minute.

Since my personal photo op was so close to the end, I had to run back and immediately help SACC organize our photo. There were 37 of us by the time everyone joined in, and it was going to be a tight squeeze in a small room with time constraints. We lined up in the hall, practiced our layout, and then filed in get the picture. It would have gone so smoothly except for a few things we forgot. First, that there were two huge honkin' chairs right in the middle that we'd forgotten to figure out how to get around. Second, that Iggy the wonderful trout takes up a lot of room. And third, that Lauren is a dork.

We got around the chairs quickly enough...Ben ended up sitting on the arms while we leaned in as best we could. Iggy threatened to block a few heads, but we quickly got him under control. As for me being a dork...well...when Nora had created the "seating chart" she and many others thought it wise to put me right next to Mr. Browder. That wouldn't have been a problem, except right next to Mr. Browder was now a large chair, and right in front was a group of SACCers. So when I sat in the chair I suddenly disappeared under Iggy. This problem was solved by sitting on the arm of the chair opposite Ben, except we all had to squish in as far as possible to be in frame of the camera, and suddenly I found myself ready to fall right back into the chair and out of sight. I had my hands propped against the chair to prevent an ungracious flop either into the chair or into Mr. Ben Browder.

Someone, and I honestly don't know who, suggested at that point I sit in Ben's lap. Thankfully the photographer started calling out orders before I could find that SACCer and whack him or her over the head with Iggy.

- The SACC photo op with Ben!

The picture was taken. Actually two, so we have a spare. Then just as I'm about to get off the arm of the chair and escape, Dabee...wonderful, sweet, energetic woman that she is...decided to make sure that I wouldn't escape without getting the chance to get introduced to Ben. Unknowing about my handshake the day before, or my own personal photo op, Dabee gave me a nice firm push in Ben's direction.

Dabee, "Hey Ben, did you meet Oboe yet?"
Me, "Gah!" (as I struggle not to fall into Ben's lap)
Ben, "Oh yeah! We met last night at the Talent show. She did the thing..." (he mimes playing the oboe)
Me, "Ah!" (still panicked I'm going to wind up in the poor man's lap and Fran is gonna kill me)
Dabee, "Oh! Wonderful!"
Me, "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"

Ok...so that last line might have just been said in my head. *grin*

You'd think that'd be all for the day for close encounters with Ben, but as was quoted during ScaperCon a few years back..."It gets WORSE!". As we're leaving I hear him commenting on the 2004 shiRts that a lot of us are wearing. And I clearly hear him saying, "Man, I've only got the older ones! I want one with the 2004 on it!"

Who am I to deny the man behind Crichton a SACC ShiRt?

I was wearing my 2004 shiRt. I'd brought my original, first edition shiRt and Elnea was wearing that one. As I was leaving the photo op room she went to change, and when I got that shiRt I switched and then ran back to the photo op room to give Ben a 2004. It's a large, so I wasn't sure if it'd fit him, but it was the best I had at short notice.

We waited for the last few photo ops to finish, and then as I'm getting ready to go back and give Mr. Browder a 2004 shiRt I hear someone say, "Gee, Lauren...what's that music playing?"

Music? Hey, that's ArtistStudio singing...he's singing my filk....HOLY DREN THEY'RE PLAYING MY MUSIC VIDEO!

See...I'd entered the music video contest, and was one of the winners, and as Ben is coming towards me I'm being told to hurry up because my video is playing.

So Lauren got to be a dork to Mr. Browder for the record third time in 24 hours by presenting him with a shiRt, thanking him for all he did on Farscape, and then announcing before I could stop myself, "And now as much as I'd love to chat with you, I have to go because they're playing my music video!"

Yes, folks, I was thinking "RUN AWAY!" before, but at that moment I really did RUN AWAY!!

I got into the main room in time to see the last few minutes of "Today Is The Day", and then was shoved up on stage to accept a $100 gift certificate for being one of the winners.

PHEW!

Rockne O'Bannon came out at that point and talked quite a bit about the process of making Farscape. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent, friendly guy who...as much as we all love him...isn't the most dynamic public speaker. He had some insightful things to say and was very detailed about the process behind the Mini, but unlike many of the other guests who moved back and forth like they were the ball in a tennis match, Rockne stayed planted by his chair with his notes.

- Awww...what a great smile!

After Mr. O'Bannon came Felicity Price, and as much as I want to hear her speak I knew I had a mission. I had a $100 gift certificate to spend, and I needed to spend it. This was the last day of the Con, and I knew it'd be easier to spend it and get something to bring back then order over the phone and have to pay shipping. So I wandered the booths for a while trying to decide. I knew I had to get ArtistStudio something...I'd promised to split the prize if we won, and he deserved it since the video wouldn't have been possible without him! Finally I decided on a beautiful book of behind the scenes photos called "The Creatures Of Farscape: Inside Jim Henson's Creature Shop" by Joe Nazzaro. Rockne had talked about it, and how it'd only be available in the UK, and it's an amazingly gorgeous book. So I got one for me and one for Artist.

As I was returning to the main room I saw Ricky Manning hanging out in the hallway, and never one to miss an opportunity I ran up to ask if he'd sign both books. He was gracious as always, signing the inside cover of mine with "Lauren! Oboes forever! Froonium Ricky Manning". After explaining why I was getting one for ArtistStuido he signed his with, "ArtistStuido! Cheapskate! Miss you!"

I returned to the main room as the final part of the auction was going on. The theme seamed to be Everything Must Go! They were down to selling the banners behind the stage! Just as the MC was announcing that they were finished, I see Mnem run up to ask about a huge Zhaan poster that hadn't been up for auction. Because Virginia Hey had a gig she couldn't come at the last minute, and while she had signed some stuff in advance to auction she hadn't signed that huge poster. They weren't going to auction it off, but Mnem said he'd been waiting all weekend for that specific item...and so they gave it to him! FREE! WOW! SCORE!

- Mnem scores!

As we waited for Ben and Claudia to come out and do their talk, Rockne arrived and announced that for a limited time he'd be signing autographs right in the hall...FREE!! DOUBLE WOW!! I dashed into line with my newly bought books and Mr. O'Bannon signed them both! DOUBLE SCORE!!

- Rockne signs autographs and we all score!

Then it was time for the big event. Ben (John "The Man" Crichton) Browder and Claudia (Aeryn "We Love Her" Sun) Black in an all out head to head chat match! Who would come away the winner? *grin*

It went on easily for 2 hours...the longest and coolest of the chats. I couldn't possibly remember everything that went on. I spent the first few minutes being completely captivated by both Ben and Claudia as they grinned and smiled. Both have such wonderful smiles, and unfortunately Farscape didn't give them a lot of chances to show them off. They teased each other endlessly, Claudia joking about her stint on Stargate SG1 and how good a kisser Michael Shanks is compared to Ben. She'd drop water bottles to try and get him to bend over in front of her and pick them up so she could admire his...assets. He organized a practical joke when she had to duck out to the bathroom, and when she returned the entire audience stood up and pretended to leave! She returned the favor when he went to use the loo by asking an audience member to get one of the autographed pictures of Shanks from the dealers room and placing it on his chair for when he returned. Considering the recent news that Mr. Browder will be showing up on Stargate as well it was certainly an interesting bit of fun!

And now, my blurry pictures of Ben and Claudia...

- Ben plays roodie again...

- Ben and Claudia check out one fan's Mini Mini...

- Ben and Claudia play Drop The Water...

- Who's that on Ben's chair?

- Well Hi Mr. Shanks!

When things got a bit more serious Claudia played the trailer from her new movie that she's starring in, called "One". It looks really kick ass, and hopefully will be released widely in the states. Ben denied rumors he's up for the part of Green Lantern, but said now that he knew about it he was gonna talk to his agent. Both spoke eloquently about their experiences going back to these wonderful characters after being gone for a year, what it was like to say goodbye to D'Argo, and the scene where D'Argo Sun Crichton is born.

Some dark pictures from the trailer of "One" staring Claudia Black...

In a word, it was amazing!

Directly afterwards Ricky Manning joined them on stage and they did a live commentary for "Out Of Their Minds" that was frelling hysterical! I missed much, because by that point everyone involved in the Opera were backstage getting costume, makeup, and last minute stuff ready. As Narrator I didn't have much in the way of makeup or costume, but I wanted to be there with my fellow Opera junkies.

Finally the show was over, it was time for Scapers to take the stage to finish out the convention!

We'd been asked to create a show that would be about 30 minutes to perform at the end of the convention, and Elnea and I wanted to do a retrospective of our past musicals at ScaperCon. The idea was not only would it make it easier to have songs we already knew to perform, but that most of the audience were new anyway! We had songs from all three ScaperCon productions, as well as one new number from Elnea's latest work, "FarSide Story". A new script weaving the old songs together was created, and we performed, "The Best Of Scaper Opera: A Thirty Minute Guide To Farscape".

We'd rehearsed a surprising amount considering the circumstances, and it paid off. Everyone performed wonderfully, and the costumes were fantastic! A good number of Scapers stuck around for us, so we had a nice sized audience, and those that stayed had the extra surprise of seeing Ricky Manning himself do a walk on role as Chiana's...well...let's just say Chiana was late getting on stage and Ricky was why. *grin*. The whole crew did a fantastic job, and we received a standing ovation at the end!

- Poor John...he's lead!

- Scorpy and his...dentition...

- Ricky in his walk on roll!

- The entire cast!

Then...it was time to party!

A bunch of us from the Opera went back to the hotel, changed, and then had dinner at the over-priced but decent hotel restaurant. Beers all around, laugher abounded, and soon we'd adjourned to the lobby where we laughed and talked and played Farscape Uno till we were ready to collapse!

I would have stayed all night if I had the choice, but my flight out of LAX left butt ugly early in the morning, so around 2am I finally staggered into bed.

And thus ends the tale of my experience at CreationCon. I'm currently moving into my new apartment, and I can't wait to hang all my autographs on the wall, organize my blurry picture collection, and look back with fondness on how crazy and wonderful it was!

Even when I was being a dork.

Till next year,
Lauren (OboeCrazy)