JEB writes...

Day 2 - Saturday, June 29, 2002

Woke up around 8:50 AM or so. Since our room still smelled, Mom pointed out the problem to the front desk, but they chose to do nothing despite a promise to at least air out the room. My family and I decided to go eat breakfast at the pancake place next door, but it was heavily crowded with two busloads of tourists. We decided to eat elsewhere, and after about a half-hour of looking, we finally decided to go to McDonald's. (I might note that the McDonald's Chicken Biscuit breakfast meal is rather good.)

After that was done with, we headed back to the hotel; Mom & Dad went touristing, while Jack and I went to the con. Our
first stop was the Dealer's Room; I'm guessing the supply of Gargoyles merchandise still extant is shrinking, since there seemed to be much less to choose from this time. (There was plenty of non-Gargoyles stuff to choose from, but that wasn't what I wanted...) Even so, I was happy to acquire a Xanatos Roadster (with the non-armored Xanatos figure), and my brother bought a second Steel Clan figure. We then browsed the art room (some nice stuff!). Then Jack and I took our new toys back to Mom & Dad's room (our base while our room was supposedly aired out), and waited there a bit until the Gargoyles Top Ten was due to start.

When the time came, we headed down and started watching. They were aired in reverse order (10 to 1), and we saw the first four choices (#10 - "The Gathering" Part II, #9 - "Deadly Force", #8 - "Kingdom", and #7 - "Temptation") and the first bit of #6 ("Vows") before we went to the Radio Play. I took copious notes, though I'm sure I'm forbidden to post them in full online; however, suffice to say that the play was definitely worth attending!

After the Radio Play ended, Jack and I headed back to the video room and watched the Top 3 of the Top 10 (#3 - "Hunter's Moon" Part II, #2 - "Hunter's Moon" Part III, #1 - "The Mirror"). (The guy in charge thought "The Mirror" was #2, but that turned out to be a mistake.) The other two, #5 and #4, were "Future Tense" and "Hunter's Moon" Part I, respectively. Thus, the Gathering 2002's Gargoyles Top Ten were:

#1 - "The Mirror"
#2, 3, 4 - "Hunter's Moon" Trilogy
#5 - "Future Tense"
#6 - "Vows"
#7 - "Temptation"
#8 - "Kingdom"
#9 - "Deadly Force"
#10 - "The Gathering" Part II

Personally, I thought "Kingdom" was a rather surprising choice- perhaps the Brooklyn factor made it popular?

Just before the Top Ten ended, it was announced (a reminder for us) that anyone paying for a full registration was entitled to a free banquet. (A first for Gatherings, I believe, and a much-appreciated one.) Jack was getting rather hungry and had a headache, so we headed up to the room during the break between Top 10 and banquet, but Mom & Dad weren't back. We waited a bit- they finally arrived, but only with their own dinner and no snacks. Jack managed to get some of Mom's meal, and waited in the room to deal wioth his growing headache. (I waited for the main meal- Jack, unfortunately, doesn't really have that option considering his blood sugar.) As I wandered a bit, I encountered A Fan, who didn't know I was attending (and gave me quite the bear-hug; as in, ouch). I also chatted briefly with a Magic: The Gathering fan, who I tried to barter with over the Gargoyles comic I brought with me. Then, I headed back to the room to retrieve Jack, and we went to the banquet.

The banquet was interesting. I was sure the little area, adjacent to the swimming pool, would be far too small for the Gathering crowd; but it comfortably seated the bunch of us. Me and Jack had two open seats, so the Gregs sat at our table. Neither of us were quite prepared for that eventuality, so we were rather disappointing conversationalists. Over the hamburger, hot dog, and
macaroni & cheese meal the hotel provided, they did mention their late-comer-ness towards CDs and DVDs (Greg W. still
doesn't have a DVD player of his own; Greg G. also came in rather late with laserdiscs), a perhaps-failing they shared with us; and Greg mentioned his one-hamburger-a-day rule over his _second_ burger of the day. For some reason, we found it was much easier to talk to them individually; when Greg W. stepped away for a bit, we briefly discussed the fun of being at a con with Greg G., and when Greg G. stepped away, Jack randomly asked Greg W. about video games (he hasn't played them much since Pong). Greg W. also took a look at my notes on the Top 10 (and the Team Atlantis ep, though that wasn't what he wanted to see). He was also somewhat surprised to see "Kingdom" in the Top 10, as well as "Temptation" (which we agreed might be due to the Brooklyn factor). He did agree with "The Mirror" as a good candidate for stand-alone episodes in the #1 slot. Also mentioned the recording of the "Bad Guys" leica reel by some parties, which he said he noticed and planned to talk
about.

After Greg G. returned, the Gregs held the Q & A. Greg W. first mentioned that he wanted anyone who recorded "Bad Guys" to please destroy their tapes or give them to him, because he couldn't risk "Bad Guys" getting into the public domain. The rest of the session included many oft-asked questions, but with nicely witty responses. (Especially when Greg W. passed some off to Greg G., whose answer was always "Absolutely.") Greg G. discussed the upcoming Lilo and Stitch regular series, which will involve Stitch's fellow-experiments arriving on Earth. Sgt. Goliath also noted in one of his questions that many of the 20,000
soldiers on his former military post watched Gargoyles (to which Greg W. responded by asking him to get them all to sign something and send it to Disney). I also found out his personal Timeline of the Gargoyles universe is along the lines of 200 pages in length! (Man, I want to see that Gargoyles Encyclopedia book now... I wonder if maybe he'd have a shot with Mad Norwegian Press, who recently published guides for the Doctor Who novels and Transformers?)

With the banquet ended, me and Jack decided to hit Mom and Dad's room (where I snagged a package of delicious
toffee-covered peanuts; dinner didn't quite fill me), and then wait for the Masquerade in the video room. We watched a few eps of Trigun, a series new to us that proved very entertaining. As the Masquerade crowd gathered up, I signed my name to one of the three frames for the upcoming group photo, then headed in, but Jack stayed to watch Transformers the Movie.

The masquerade costumes included many unfamiliar characters, and even more cross-dressing (including CrzyDemona as David Xanatos and Patrick Toman as Fox). After the costume displaying was done, I went back to the video room, watched a bit of TFTM, then took Jack back for the group photo. Then, after chatting briefly with A Fan and Winterwolf, I took Jack back to the room at his request, and went down to watch the rest of TFTM. Along the way, I sold my extra copy of Gargoyles #1 to a collector in the elevator. Greg B. stopped by for a bit and did some good-natured MST3K'ing of the movie; Jack returned just as the movie ended. Between TFTM and the next movie, I signed my name to the other two photo-frames, took peeks into the masquerade, and talked with Duncan and Guandalug over plans for the new Gargoyles Fan Registry. Jack and I both stayed to watch Army of Darkness. (It was interesting to see a film with a crowd of people who knew it well enough to speak the lines along with the actors.) We didn't get to see the alternate ending (due to the person in charge not being informed of such), and we listened as Hudson and company made plans for a dart-gun war a la Quake.

As the quiet hour began, Hudson and his friends snagged half the masquerade room and began playing, with Jack watching; I stayed in the other half and listened to the late night conversations with other fans and Greg W. Eventually, around 1 AM, I tried to get Jack to go back to the room, but he stayed a bit more; after I informed Dad that we'd be back by 2 AM, Jack came back. I headed back down, listened until the crowd headed to Denny's, then went back to my room. After watching good eps of Superman: TAS (the first Bizarro ep) and Batman: TAS (the Clock King ep), I went to sleep.