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Roberta Bonaime writes...

I noticed in one of your answers to the question "Is Puck the biological son of Oberon" you stated that not only is that incorrect, but you also did not understand why we could think that. I think I have an answer to that. One they look incrediably simaliar, hair color, and facial features wise. Two, in several legands (I really do my homework.) Puck was the biological son of Oberon, and a mortal woman. three, when oberon banished Puck, there was a fleeting moment of sadness present on Oberons face. (Though, that might suggest that Obie was on Titania's plot. Mabye not though.)
Just thought you like to know.

Greg responds...

I think you're reading in the "moment of sadness".

You may have a point on the resemblance, though I think it's pretty superficial. I mean if Puck had blue skin...

I'm unfamiliar with the legends you speak of. What are your sources?

But, in any case, I'll grant that the audience had reasons to believe they might be biologically related. But they're not. Or in any case, not closely.

Response recorded on January 07, 2005

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Raptor writes...

I noticed on the Gargoyles New Central site that you requested comments from the people that went to the Gathering. While I'm not one of them, I would have really liked to go. If it's ever in San Diego again, I'll definitely make time for it! LONG LIVE GARGOYLES!!!!!!!!

Greg responds...

How about Las Vegas? That's only a car ride from S.D.

Response recorded on January 06, 2005

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Patrick Toman writes...

Gathering 2003 Journal

Friday, June 27

My day started at 4:00 am, so I could be at the Cleveland airport in time for my 7:30 am flight to New York - LaGuardia. After checking in and walking all the way to my gate at the far end of the terminal, I found out that the plane scheduled to fly us on to New York was the redeye from Los Angeles, and it was running 45 minutes late. This wasn't a big deal, I decided, considering that last year Jen Anderson and I had endured a delay of over three hours on our way to the Gathering in Virginia. And it gave me enough time to hike back to the main concourse to grab a breakfast sandwich from Burger King.

Boarding time ended up being right around 8:15 am. This was the first flight of the morning to New York, but the plane was barely half full so I had the entire row to myself. Being able to sprawl across three coach seats is pretty nice, even on a short flight. I used the hour on the plane to practice my lines for the cosplay skit that Karine and I were doing on Saturday night (more on that later). I was hoping to see New York City from the air as we approached, but I discovered I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane. Instead, I saw New Jersey (yippee). The landing was fun, though. Landing at LaGuardia airport is the closest you can come to landing on an aircraft carrier without joining the Navy. The plane comes in very low, and you can't see anything but water until about five seconds before touchdown. Then, once the wheels are on the ground, the pilot jams on the brakes as hard as he possible can because the runways aren't really long enough. Having made this same trip twice before for G97 and G98, I was ready for this little roller coaster ride, but it was interesting to watch the reactions of the passengers who had never experienced a landing like this before. They were easy to spot, as they were the ones who kept a white-knuckled death grip on the armrest and muttered under their breath about the pilot until we had parked at the gate.

Now fully awake and running on the coffee I had consumed on the plane, I hurried down to baggage claim, grabbed my luggage, and headed straight to the Ground Transportation desk to join the queue for the Super Shuttle. Less than half an hour later, I was in the van with seven other people, starting the long slow crawl into Manhattan. Traffic back-ups due to accidents and road construction made the 15 mile trip from the airport to the hotel take a little over an hour… almost as long as the 450 mile flight. The shuttle driver was determined, though, to get us to our destinations, even if it meant cutting off taxis right and left and driving up onto the sidewalk to squeeze past a road repair crew.

I wasn't sure at first that I had arrived at the hotel. Instead of the main entrance on Seventh Avenue, I was dropped off at the side entrance on 34th Street, so my first impression of the Hotel Pennsylvania was "this is it?" That changed about minute later, though, once I had managed to drag my luggage through the revolving door and walked down the hallway into the main lobby. The lobby was HUGE… bigger, even, than the Sheraton Universal's at Gathering 2001. Or maybe it just seemed that way because the ceiling was so high. At any rate… it was BIG. So I went to get in the line for the registration desk, before it could get any longer. I spotted a couple of people I knew while I was waiting, but I'm not sure they saw me. I also noticed the coffee shop just off the lobby, which was called "City Perk" and made me think of "Friends" until I realized the shop in that show was "Central Perk."

Finally, I got up to the desk and was able to check in, which surprised me because it was only 11:00 am and the normal check in time was 3:00 pm. They warned me, though, that the room might not be cleaned up yet. After checking in, I spotted a few of the G2003 staff coming down to set up registration, so I went over and grabbed my con badge. Then I headed off in search of a place to dump my bags, and on the way to the elevators I ran into Kellie Fay and Stephen Sobotka. A few quick hellos, then it was up to the ninth floor to find my room. The maid's cart was still in the hall, and a quick peek inside confirmed that it was still a mess from the previous guest, so I dragged my stuff back to the elevators and headed up one more floor to find the con suite.

In the con suite, I found Mara, Kathy, Batya and her husband Alex, and a bunch of other people who's names escape me now because of how hectic everything was with people coming and going and moving boxes and crawling over each other. In the back room, though, I finally found a spot to drop off my bags until my room was ready. A moment later, I was given my first little assignment of the weekend, when I was handed a power strip and a pair of scissors and told to go down to the lobby and give the people working registration a demo of how the label machine worked. This I did, then I headed back upstairs to scope out the convention rooms. On the way back up, I ran into Thom Adcox, who actually recognized me before I spotted him. I also caught my first glimpse of Greg Weisman… or at least the back of his head for a few seconds while the elevator made a stop.

Eventually, I ended up back at the con suite in search of water and a quick snack, and I sat and listened for a bit while Guandalug talked about lost luggage and the fanfic archive. After a while, though, I realized I needed more than snack food to keep me going, so I headed downstairs in search of lunch. There was a Roy Rogers on the same block as the hotel, so I grabbed a combo meal to go and came back to the hotel, where I somehow ended up in the Othercon room, where I met BiZZ and ArtGolem. Mara, Mooncat, and Princess Alexandria were there, as well, and we all sat for a while and had a nice little chat about naughty things. BiZZ also gifted me with a print of his Dominique picture. Those who have seen it will know… those who haven't… sorry, but this is a PG rated journal.

At 2:30 pm, it was time for the Voice Actor's Q&A, so I headed over to the London room where Thom was just finishing up his Mug a Guest. No one who was already there was getting up to leave, so I had to find a seat way in the back. Greg arrived a few minutes later, and while he and Thom waited for a few more people to find their way in, Kathy came in to talk to them about a few things related to events going on later that day (I'm guessing). She knelt down between their chairs and was talking in a low voice when Thom, totally out of the blue, stops nodding along and yells out "What? You're PREGNANT?" At which point, of course, everyone in the room just died laughing. Sorry, Kathy… it probably wasn't too funny from where you were standing… but it made my afternoon to see that Thom was getting off to an early start with the evil pranks.

Now there one thing about the way that London and Paris rooms were set up that I hadn't really considered on my way into the room that I quickly came to hate. It was flat-out impossible to come in late or leave early without causing a distraction because the only door into each room was right next to the table where the presenters were sitting. Had I realized this initially, I would've looked for a seat closer to the front, so as not to become the center of attention when the time came to sneak out and see if my room was finally ready. So Greg, if you read this… it wasn't that I was bored or wanted to be rude when I got up and left. Heaven knows I never get tired of hearing you and Thom talk.

So I headed back upstairs, and since my room was finally ready I retrieved my bags from the con suite and officially moved in for the weekend. The room had a mini-fridge, a nice TV (which I never even turned on until Tuesday morning), and in stark contrast to the hotel rooms at G97 and G98, the bathroom was large enough to turn around in. As I wondered how much longer I had until the History, Myths and Legends panel, though, I realized the room had no clock. Maybe the previous guest decided to keep a souvenir, because an alarm clock is a pretty standard hotel room amenity. So I put in a call to housekeeping to bring me a clock, and then I headed back out to see more of the con.

The rest of the afternoon flew by pretty quickly. I attended the History, Myths and Legends panel co-hosted by Kathy, Batya, Greg Bishansky, and Lynati. Then I helped rearrange the room for Opening Ceremonies and hooked up with the G2004 staff to work out the gameplan for the weekend and distribute raffle tickets. Opening Ceremonies went pretty smoothly. Karine and Sapphire spoke to get people psyched up about The Gathering 2004 in Montreal, and Greg Weisman read letters from Brigitte Bako and Greg Guler, who had conflicting commitments and weren't able to attend this year. Then Greg showed the tapes that those of us who have been to every Gathering so far (like me) have nearly memorized by now: the Gargoyles pitch, the Gargoyles promo, the Dark Ages and New Olympians pitches, and the Bad Guys tape.

After Opening Ceremonies, I joined Greg, Vic Cook, Kathy, Carol and Mandi for dinner at a restaurant called America. It was a long walk to get there (the first of many to come), but the food was great and the desserts were even better. A friend of Greg's from college joined us at the restaurant, and Carol managed to leave the hotel after the rest of us but make it there first by taking the subway. Heading back to the hotel afterwards, Greg was worried he'd be late for the Blue Mug-a-Guest, so he started jogging. This lead many of the rest of us to start jogging, too, providing for those of a psychological bent what I'm sure must be an interesting example of pack mentality (I guess that makes Greg the alpha, too).

So maybe it was the jogging, or maybe it was the fact that there was about 60 people crammed into the London Room… but it was just stifling hot during the Blue Mug-a-Guest. It started at 11:00 pm and lasted until past 1:30 am, when one of the hotel security guys stuck his head in the room and asked, "Are you still supposed to be in here?" Only it was in that tone that means "What the hell are all of you still doing in here?" The biggest revelation of the evening was when Greg confirmed that Lexington was gay and had the series continued he would have found a way to work it in. I don't recall much else in detail after about midnight, though, because by that time I was fading pretty fast. So while others headed to the con suite to continue the discussion, I decided to call it a night headed off to my room.

I took a quick shower and crawled into bed, noticing only then that I still did not have a clock in the room. Since I knew that the pitiful beeping of my travel clock would never wake me in time for my Saturday morning writer's panel now that I had been up for nearly 22 hours straight, I called the front desk to request a wake-up call. I also asked them to remind housekeeping to bring an alarm clock to my room. I wasn't anticipating speedy service at this point, so it was kind of surprising when 15 minutes later, just as I was about to enter the twilight zone, someone from housekeeping knocked at my door to deliver a clock. Happy, I plugged it in, set the alarm for 9:30 am, and settled in for seven solid hours of unconsciousness.

Saturday, June 28

My first full day in NYC started at a much more leisurely hour of 10:00 am, when I met up with Dylan, Ellen, and Allaine downstairs at City Perk to have a quick breakfast and discuss the fanfic panel were hosting that morning. Having only "known" everyone up until then from only e-mail, the fanfic archive, and the GargoylesX board, it was really nice to get a chance to sit down and chat and put voices and faces to the names.

Karine spotted me and stopped by our table for a moment to plan a time during the day to get together and rehearse our skit, and then all of us were off to our first panels of the day. Dylan, Ellen, Allaine and I hotest the "Showstoppers and Scene Stealers: Creating Memorable Characters" panel, which got a pretty good attendance considering it was in the dreaded first timeslot of the morning. Some of the people even seemed to be mostly awake… or at least as awake as the four of us were.

After that, I dashed up to the Art / Dealer's Room where I was supposed to rendezvous with Karine, but with all the noise and the constant flow of people, our earlier plan to rehearse our skit never really materialized. Instead, we collected registrations for Gathering 2004 and I took a moment to check out the display of development art that Disney had loaned for the weekend. It was all really cool stuff, and included a lot of character model sheets and background art, such as panoramic skylines of Manhattan and the eagle's eye view of Astroland at Coney Island from "The Reckoning." On one of the model sheets, I made a mental note of the early spelling of a certain geneticist's name as "Servarius" and filed it away as something to ask Greg about later.

Up next on my agenda was Greg Weisman and Vic Cook's seminar on "Writing for Animation and Series Development," mostly because I wanted to see the surprise presentation of the new project Greg, Vic, and Greg Guler were working on. I'm not sure if it's okay to mention specifics since they're still trying to sell it, so I'll just say that it looked like a really interesting concept, and I hope we'll see it on TV eventually.

Next, it was back downstairs again to host the "Am I Blue?" panel with Kathy, which seemed to go fairly well. We did a writing exercise near the end, but time was running out so we didn't get a chance to see if anyone wanted to read aloud what they had written.

The Radio Play was coming up next and I was supposed to video record it. So to save some time (or so I thought), while everyone was writing I excused myself and ran back to my room on the 9th floor to fetch my camcorder, then came back down to the London Room on the 6th floor. At ten minutes to five, we wrapped up the panel and I booked it back up to the ballroom on the 18th floor, figuring I'd only have a few minutes to get set up before the Radio Play began. Instead, I arrived to find the ballroom door locked, and stood there confused for a few minutes while Greg Bishsanky argued with the guy from hotel catering, who was saying he'd already cleared everything with Aaron and they needed 45 minutes to set the room up for dinner.

Whatever the miscommunication had been, though, it all worked out in the end. After about a half hour, they were able to let us back into the room to hold the Radio Play, although instead of the audience sitting in rows of chairs, they all had to sit at the tables. I set the camera up off to the side, where I could get the whole Radio Play cast into the shot at once. After that, I really didn't have to do much more than let the camera run… though it annoyed me that the hotel wait staff kept walking into the shot while setting out the water and the salt and pepper shakers.

This year's Radio Play was a performance of "The Reckoning" from the second season of Gargoyles. Greg talked a bit first about Gary Sperling, one of the writers on that episode of the show (as well as a number of others), who had just passed away recently from lung cancer, leaving behind a wife and two children. The convention staff had asked Liz to make a card for Gary's family, and it was out in the hall so that everyone could sign it later.

Then the Radio Play got underway. The funniest moment was when Seth, playing Claw, the mute tiger Mutate, stood up to say… nothing, and then sat back down. I also heard later that during rehearsal, Greg Weisman had some fun with Batya and Alex Wittenburg during their exchange of Demona and Fang's lines, "He's a fool, but he may be of some use." / "I can work with that." Reportedly, Greg zinged them with "I bet that's what you said at the wedding." Also of note this year… Thom Adcox's over the top performance as Anton Sevarius. Can you say "superfluous maniacal laughter" boys and girls? I knew you could.

Next up was the Banquet. A few people went to change and came back dressed up in nicer clothes, but I had only brought one change of clothes that were not jeans and a t-shirt, and I was saving those for Henry V in the park on Monday night. Nichelle Nichols arrived just as they had begun letting people back into the room. She passed within five feet of me, which makes that the closest I've ever been to a real live "Star Trek" celebrity. For the dinner itself, I ended up at a table with Karine, Sapphire, Dreamie, Winterwolf, Noel, BrooklynX, and a few others. The food was pretty good, but the desserts were excellent, especially the key lime pie. There was also an interesting conversation at our table about the foibles of the U.S. President and the Canadian Prime Minister. Then the Q&A started, with most of the questions going to Nichelle (surprise). After about fifteen minutes, though, Karine and I decided to duck out because we needed to get ready for the Masquerade.

I ran back to my room, grabbed my stuff, then went to Karine's room to change. Her roommate was there, talking on the phone the whole time as we got ready. I'd never met her before, but strangely enough she was completely unfazed when I stepped out of the bathroom wearing a dress. Karine did the makeup to transform us into Anastasia Renard and Fox Xanatos, and we attempted a quick run through of our cosplay skit. I kept stumbling over my lines, which started to freak me out because I'd been practicing them over and over again in my head the entire day. In the end, we decided just to do our best and improvise if we had to. I put my wig on, Karine grabbed the life-size doll she had dubbed "Spawn of Xanatos" that was playing baby Alexander, and we headed back to the ballroom to see if we were really running as late as the clock said we were.

After freaking out a woman on the 7th floor who came running after us thinking Karine was dangling a real live baby by the arm, we arrived back on the 18th to find the line was still forming and we still had time to run through our skit one more time before it was time to go in. We were placed near the end of the line, so unfortunately we didn't get to see what all the people who went before us did. I could hear lots of cheers and laughing, though, when Kythera went in dressed in her Orcus costume, dragged on a chain by Hudson.

Finally, it was our turn… and I guess our little "mother / daughter" skit went over quite well. People laughed and applauded… and in the end we won first place for cosplay. Greg told me just to stay up there, though, after we accepted our prize (bags of Peanut M&Ms) because I had also won the Gorelisa Memorial award again, which was presented this year by Gorebash himself. That's three times now I've won that one since its inception at G98. At the risk of becoming completely predictable, though, I think next year I'm going to have to change things up and dress as a male character. And that's not just because I think Greg's getting sick of seeing me in drag… or because a little later that evening I got hit on by a very nice guy wearing a rainbow bandana.

Getting the dance portion of the Masquerade Ball going didn't seem to be happening this year, so once Karine and I had claimed the free shirts that were our door prizes for attending the dinner, we headed back to her room to get out of costume. After all the makeup was off, I headed back to my room, changed, then returned to the ballroom to collect my camcorder. As I was packing my stuff up, Greg invited me to come along with him, Thom, Lanny, Kathy, and Carol to Greenwich Village. So after dumping my stuff back in my room, I hustled down to the lobby to meet up with them and off we went.

Thom and Lanny led the way. We took the subway (man does it get hot in those underground stations), then we spent some time walking around. The number of people on the sidewalk at Lexington Avenue was just ridiculous… so I can only imagine what it was going to be like the next morning for the Gay Pride parade. Greg showed us an apartment building he used to live in, and tried to point out his old window from the ground. While staring up into the darkness at the brick wall, I had a nice little Gathering flashback to the Jamestown ghost tour last year in Virginia… where we had all spent a good ten minutes starting at a brick wall in the dark looking for a cannonball lodged there from the Revolutionary War.

From the moment we came up from the subway, we had decided we were hungry (even though we had all eaten at the banquet a few hours before) so we went looking for food. We ended up at the Caliente Cab Company, a Mexican food place. We were all carded before the bouncer / maitre d' allowed us in. Except for Kathy. She had left her I.D. back at the hotel, so she was interrogated for a few minutes instead, until the guy was convinced she was as old as she said she was (we wouldn't have left you out there on the sidewalk, Kathy, honest). Once we got inside, though, we didn't even have drinks… so in essence we were carded for nachos and guacamole. The music was so loud in this place, it was hard to have much in the way of group conversation, but one thing I can clearly recall was a discussion of what "The Price is Right" was doing on the big screen TV at half past midnight. We finally decided it must have been a west coast feed.

After our second dinner, we walked the twenty blocks or so back to the hotel. And I'm pretty sure I called it a night once we got back, because I don't remember anything else except going to bed and waking up on Sunday morning.

Sunday, June 29

Gathering Day III: The Search for Dim Sum. I woke up early to join Karine, Dreamie, Winterwolf, and Sapphire (someone else was there, too, and I'm blanking now on who it was) for breakfast. I knew we were going for dim sum. I didn't know we'd be going all the way to Chinatown. It was another trip on the subway, lots of walking, some really fast eating, and then a frantic race to get back to the hotel by 11:00 am. Half the group went on ahead in a cab so they'd be back in time, and the rest of us took the subway back. On the walk back to the hotel, we spotted a pet store and stopped to spend a few minutes watching the birdies. Even so, we still made it back to the hotel in time for me to get back up to the 18th floor just as the auction was starting.

I'd just walked into the room when Greg spotted me and gave me an assignment. He asked if I could find out if the subway line we were taking to Coney Island later that evening ran near the World Trade Center memorial. So back to my room I went to boot up my laptop for the first time that weekend. I'd saved the PDF's of the subway maps and schedule to my hard drive… which turned out to be a good thing since I wasn't able to get a dial-up connection going. I didn't figure out until later that in NYC you have to dial "1" and the area code before every number, as if you're calling long distance.

Eventually, I determined that yes, that subway line did run near the WTC site, so I went back and relayed the information to Greg. Then I sat and watched the auction for a little while. A couple of times I was tempted to bid on things, except I only had about $75 in cash left on me by that point and I knew I had a big car repair bill waiting for me when I got home. So once that storyboard got up over $300, I got up and wandered over to the Art / Dealer's Room where I ended up purchasing cast photos of Keith David / Salli Richardson and Jonathan Frakes / Marina Sirtis. I also took one more look at the Art Show and bought lovely illustration of Angela in flight that was done by Karine.

For Closing Ceremonies, the G2004 group moved everything into the ballroom so we could continue taking pre-registrations. I ran downstairs to the ATM so I could get my pre-registration in, too, and then at closing ceremonies we had Greg draw the winning raffle tickets for the free memberships and banquet admission we gave away. I made a quick announcement at the end about where to meet up for Coney Island, and immediately after that I was shanghaied by G2003 staff to go up to the con suite and try to get Paypal working on the laptop I had loaned them. I'd forgotten how slow Windows 98 boots up… and how annoying AOL was. At last, though, one of the NYC natives clued me in on the dialing "1" first thing, so we were able to get an AOL connection. I stayed until just before 5:00 pm, and then it was time to head out for Coney Island.

I had printed up maps and directions for everyone ahead of time because I wasn't sure if everyone would stick together or not. What ended up happening, though, was Greg somehow morphed into everyone's dad, and it was like a big field trip. Greg took a head count every time we got on or off the subway. There were 27 of us.

We stopped first at the World Trade Center site. The map I had gotten hold of made it look like the subway station was a block or two away, so I wasn't quite prepared to come up the stairs and suddenly be right there, just twenty feet from the fence and the temporary memorial. I can't quite describe the feeling that came over me as I stared at that big hole in the ground. The closest I can come is likening it to the same sort of feeling I had many years ago when walking along the length of the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington D.C., only multiplied many times over. It was just a very solemn sense of unquiet… so much so that it became hard to imagine that any time in the near future people would want to come back to work or shop at this same site.

I'm not sure how long we lingered there, but eventually the last few people found their way back to the group and we headed back down to the subway to continue our trek to Coney Island. The rest of the subway ride was pretty uneventful, and somehow despite the crowds we managed to keep the group together until we'd found the boardwalk entrance to Astroland. At that point, Greg proposed a plan that we all meet back up at 10:00 pm to see who wanted to stay and who wanted to go, and we split off into smaller groups. I tagged along with Greg and Kathy, and we meandered our way back through the crowd and back down the street to the original Nathan's restaurant. I got a hotdog, but made the mistake of ordering the "large" soda, which turned out to be nearly big enough to swim laps in.

A few minutes after we'd sat down in the courtyard area, we spotted Seth and Wingless and called them over to join us. We sat and ate and talked about the Gathering and ideas for G2004. Then we headed back to Astroland, where Greg, Seth, Kathy, and I rode the Cyclone. I got quite a rush out of it… but then I've always enjoyed a good roller coaster. Astroland itself, though, wasn't quite what I had expected. When I think of amusement parks, I picture the ones run by Six Flags and Disney, but Astroland was more like a carnival. It was crowded as hell, and they even charged a quarter to use the restroom. The only other thing I ended up riding was the observation tower thing where it takes you up and lets you see the area. After that, the five of us got away from the crowds and went for a walk down the boardwalk, which gave a nice opportunity to unwind from the busy weekend.

At 10:00 pm, we met back up with the rest of the gang as planned, and a pretty much unanimous decision was made to head back. So Greg took over as scoutmaster again, and we filed back to the subway station. While we waited for the train, we took a few group photos… so hopefully the people whose cameras were used will post them. The train ride back took a lot longer than the ride out, because the train kept coming to a dead stop for no apparent reason. Once we were back at the 34th Street station, Greg made his last headcount and then everyone was on his or her own for the last block back to the hotel. A bunch of us stuck with Greg, though, and began a futile search for pancakes at midnight in Manhattan. Unlike the rest of America, though, there aren't any Denny's or IHOP's in New York City… so our quest for late night munchies was nearly denied until we found the food court was still open in the lower level of Penn Station. Somehow it was decided the next best thing to pancakes was donuts, but we were cruelly denied again by Dunkin' Donuts not having anything left. So instead, we found an ice cream place and got waffle cones.

Melting ice cream in hand, we headed back to the hotel and a few of us made plans to meet back up in the con suite a short while later. I made a stop at my room, then headed down and found Kathy already there. The room was pretty full, and it was hot in there, too. People were watching Cowboy Beebop, so I sat down for a few minutes and checked it out. I think Kathy and I were both mostly waiting for Greg to arrive, but after a while it didn't seem like he was going to show up. She had just left and I was just getting ready to go when he stuck his head in the door. Most of the people who were still awake were fixated on the animé, though, so we both decided to call it a night.

Monday, June 30

The convention was over, but I still had one more full day left to spend in NYC. I started my morning by running downstairs to City Perk for a bagel and a bottle of Snapple, and I ran into Kathy and exchanged good-byes in case we didn't see each other again that day before she left for home (and we didn't). After my little breakfast, I stopped by the con suite to see if anyone was still alive, and collected the laptop and some items I had loaned them with the plan of boxing them up and shipping them back to myself. No one had any packing tape, though, so I scampered across the street to Penn Station and picked some up from the Staples right at the bottom of the escalators. Since they offered UPS shipping, I decided I'd just bring the package back there rather than walk two blocks to the post office, and back I went to the hotel.

Back in the 10th floor con suite again, Mara stopped by briefly and appointed me "keeper of the room keys" and recruited me to help with cleaning up and moving all the convention staff's remaining stuff up to her room on the 11th floor. Greg Bishansky, Cat and I managed to clean up all the leftover food that was literally everywhere in about half an hour, filling three huge trash bags. Tip for the con suite next year: plastic drop cloths. Or get a room that can be hosed down at the end. Sorry, guys… I love this fandom, really I do, but do we really have to make such a mess when we eat snack foods? Anyway… we got everything that was trash thrown away and everything else picked up and moved up to Mara's room by noon check-out time… which I'm sure made the hotel happy.

After that, I went back to my room to finish packing up that box, and found a message on the voice mail that Princess Alexandria had just left a few minutes earlier. She and Mooncat were looking for me, to see if I wanted to go do some sightseeing with BiZZ and the two of them. I did, so I called them back to see where they were, and hurried down to their room to discuss the plan. Online, we'd discussed checking out the "Museum of Sex" that was supposed to be just a few blocks away, but Mooncat had tried to call them and found their phone was disconnected. Deciding that wasn't a good sign, we instead settled on going to see Times Square and then just going from there. I got them to give me 20 minutes to go ship my package, then ran back to my room, back to Staples to do that, and returned to meet them in the lobby.

We walked up to Times Square, where we took some photos and explored a few of the souvenir shops and one big toy store that had life-size Lego models of Harry Potter and Hagrid in the window. Then we decided to walk up to Central Park and look for Belvedere Castle, the place where Elisa and Demona fought in "High Noon." It was a pretty good trek, but you could almost feel the air temperature drop once you went into the park. We followed the road that curved up through the east edge of the park, stopping three or four times to ask various park employees for directions, until eventually we came upon the back side of Belvedere Castle. I made sure to point out the "claw marks" in the stone, since I'd been there before on the walking tour that Batya had led after Gathering '97. Disappointingly, though, the Castle wasn't open, so we couldn't go inside and up top as I'd done then.

It was getting to mid-afternoon by that point, so we decided to start heading back. We exited on the Central Park West side, and found the subway line that took us right back to within a block of the hotel. Since we'd all skipped lunch, we then went looking for food. I got a corned beef Ruben sandwich that ended up being so big, half of it went back to the hotel with me to become a meal for Tuesday morning before I left for the airport. Mooncat insisted on treating everyone, too… so thanks, Mooncat. After we ate, we still had about a half hour left to hang out in Mooncat and Princess Alexandria's room before BiZZ had to leave for the airport. Mooncat gifted me with a really cool Demona / Dominique t-shirt and a print of her Elisa pic that had been inspired by the Madame Destine fic "Mistress of Dreams." Then it was time for BiZZ to be on his way, and time for me to go get ready for my second trip of the day to Central Park.

There was a big group for dinner, but it was just Greg, Carol, and I for "Henry V" at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. It was sort of a race to get there by 7:30. We took the subway, then Greg flagged down a cab which took us across the park, and then we jumped out and jogged the rest of the way, which got us there just a few minutes before they started letting people file in. It turned out to be a really nice evening for outdoor theater, and the performance was very well done. The part of King Henry V was played by Liev Schreiber, who seemed familiar to me even though I still can quite place where I've seen him before. The one cast member I did recognize, though, was Bronson Pinchot, who played the part of Pistol, and did so sort as if he was playing Vinnie Barbarino playing Pistol. The play was performed using Shakespeare's original dialog, but with modern costuming and scenery. Overall, it was a very interesting staging.

After the play, Greg, Carol and I went off on another walk through another of Greg's old neighborhoods. It was a really nice area now, but he kept giving examples of how it had been a pretty scary area twenty years ago when he'd lived there. Finally, we headed back to the subway and returned to the hotel, where we ended up just sitting around in Greg's room for a while, eating peanut M&Ms and watching TV until Greg decided we should call it a night.

Tuesday, July 1

My last day in NYC was pretty much a nothing day. I slept until about 10:00 am, then got up and ran downstairs for a Snapple. Mooncat and Princess Alexandria spotted me, so I stopped to say good-bye since I'd be leaving soon. On my way back to my room, I stopped by Mara's room to say more good-byes and pick up the art she'd done for me that she'd been telling me all weekend to remind her to give to me before I left. Then I went back to my room, ate my leftover Ruben sandwich, and finished packing. I checked out around 11:00 am, then headed out front to catch a cab to LaGuardia. The trip back to the airport took maybe a half hour at most, so I was left with lots of time to nap before my 2:30 pm flight. The trip back to Cleveland was uneventful, and I was home in time for dinner.

And thus ended another Gathering adventure. Coming home at the end is always a little bittersweet, but I know I'll see many of my friends again next year in Montreal at The Gathering 2004. At least, I'd better see you all there! ;)

Greg responds...

Oh... that's right. The pregnancy joke. How could I have forgotten...

I have such fond memories of that whole weekend. By the way, I wasn't blowing you guys off at the con suite on Sunday night. I was off on a quest with Mandolin to find a pharamacy. It took us much longer than we thought.

I also had a great time Monday night. We went to P.J. Clark's as I recall before the play.

Response recorded on January 06, 2005

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Carter writes...

Gathering Journal

Thursday:
Awakening to the sound of my alarm clock, I left home at about 10:30 and got to Union Station at 11:00 for a 12:05 train. Bored, I went window shopping for about 10 minutes before I got really bored, after which point I began to read the book that I brought for the train ride, Rogue Nation - an objective look at the development of American unilateralism and the origins of the divisions between the United States and the rest of the world (I highly recommend it). However, I ended up spending the ride talking about the state of Medicare, veterans' benefits, and Bush's chances of reelection with someone I met in the terminal. Needless to say, but that was the best train ride I have ever taken.

I got to Penn Station at about 3:50, a good 20 minutes late, and found my way to the hotel (I say "found" because I went out the wrong exit and had to circle the block to get to the hotel). Once I got there I checked in and immediately asked where I could find the accounting office - I wanted to once and for all finish the dispute between myself and the hotel regarding the $124.52 they stupidly took from me. After I went up to the 18th floor, where I was directed, and could not find the right office, or any office for that matter, I called the office.

They said that they would be happy to discuss the matter when I arrived at the hotel, and when I told them I had already arrived and was ready to talk when they were, there was a good pause over the phone, I was put on hold, and was told that the money was transferred to my account on Wednesday, and it was unlikely that the money would make it through the central bank and into my account before Monday (and it actually didn't show up until Tuesday), and so I found myself in the position of not eating for the duration of this my second Gathering.

That night I made it out of the hotel and to the Empire State Building, where I went up to the observation deck and had a very nice view. I tried the Skyride in the building, and while I was waiting a couple got it in their minds that I was a native New Yorker - I had to tell them otherwise; while I usually consider myself an actor with range, I can't pretend to be a New Yorker. The Skyride was none-too-impressive, but okay.

I got back to the hotel about 11:30 and went to bed.

Friday:
I got a wake-up call about 5:00 so I could head down to Times Square in order to promote the Gathering on "Good Morning America." Unfortunately two things weren't working in my favor - 1) the line was huge, even though I got there at 6:00, and 2) I learned later that they were filming in some park or another, so standing in Times Square would have been worthless.

I went back to the hotel and back to bed. I woke up in time to go to registration, and after that went with a group to a Kosher (sorta) Deli, where I met "A Fan," who ended up being my roommate for the remainder of the Gathering.

I hurried back to the hotel where I attended the Thom Adcox mug-a-guest. Now, I had heard from other Gathering reports that Thom sounded exactly like Lex; but I thought that they meant "really close." So when Thom spoke, I was a little surprised. For the rest of the Gathering, every time I spoke with Thom I had to try not to superimpose an image of Lex.

I stuck around after that for the voice acting panel with both Thom and Greg, and after that auditioned for the Radio Play. Now last year I auditioned and got nothing, so I wasn't expecting to get a part - if anything.

After the auditions I set out to find Thom the Franciscan chapel I had seen on my earlier expedition into New York (Thom had said during his mug-a-guest session that he wanted a tattoo of St. Francis or something related, and if I could be the guy who found the chapel that Thom went to to get inspiration for a new tattoo to show off at the next Gathering, my contribution to the fandom would be complete - so I took the mission to be greatly important, even though I was never officially assigned to it). Unfortunately, as I grabbed my camera for the trip, I slammed my fingers in my closet door and had to cancel the trip in order to run to Penn Station and get bandages for my fingers. They remain sore as I write this.

I got back in time for the opening ceremonies where we learned the location of the next Gathering, saw Greg's videos (for many of us… again), and so on. From there I went to the games of skill and endurance, but because nobody could find any jalapenos, the event was cancelled, so I waited around for the blue mug-a-guest.

I personally wasn't too surprised by the revealing of Lex's sexual preference. The only memorable moment for me was when Greg "answered" my question about gargoyle ejaculate and sunrise. Now, I had expected one of three typical Greg responses - A) "Yes, I'll answer that." B) "I haven't really thought about that," or "Let me BS that." C) "I don't care (such was his answer to my question about gargoyles being circumcised - I really hadn't meant to ask so many penis-related questions, the other question being about who of the clan was 'packing the most heat [Goliath - could have been Brooklyn if the beak rumors were true, which is why I asked],' but oh well)," or "no, I won't answer that." Instead, after the laughter subsided and Greg got his head out of his hands he said, "You're just creepy." Now later he would qualify that to me by claiming that he meant to say that the question was creepy, but I definitely heard, "You're just creepy." To be called "creepy" by Greg is like a badge of honor.

[Section excluded - could be construed as submitting an original idea].

After our session was broken up at almost 2 AM, I went to bed.

Saturday:
I wasn't going to be deterred from my mission of finding Thom his Franciscan chapel, fingers wounded or not. I got up early and, because I had no clue where I had seen the place, I tried to retrace my steps from Thursday's sightseeing. I went from the hotel to Times Square to the Chrysler Building and back to the hotel twice, and unsuccessful both times. As I walked by the hotel, about to begin my trek all over again, I decided to start the trek over by going up 31st Street instead of 33rd, and lo-and-behold there was the chapel, no more than four minutes from the hotel. Having wasted 56 minutes chasing my tail, I went back to the hotel moderately embarrassed.

I found Thom and told him of my success and where he could find the chapel, and from that point on I will consider any tattoo he gets of or related to St. Francis a direct result of my efforts; and you can't take from me those things which I tell myself - truths, half-truths or total lies - they're all mine!

After that I went to the panel hosted by Dylan, Allaine, Ellen and Patrick. It was good for me to be a part of the discussion as I got to hear from four accomplished writers that the techniques I've employed so far in my writing seem to be similar to those that they have used. BTW - if any of you are tracking the events I attended throughout the Gathering, don't worry if you think you're seeing a strange pattern; I did end up spending pretty much all of my time in the London Suite.

In following that pattern, I attended Kathy's workshop, which was also great to attend. Although it's unlikely that I will anytime soon complete the work that I started in the workshop, I'll keep it in my list of projects.

After that panel I checked to see the list of those who were cast in the Radio Play, and there I was on the list. The downside was that I was going to miss the OtherCon panel on writing adult themes (not that I ever intend to write such themes, but it would have been good to sit in on anyway). So I headed to auditions and expected to get one of the clones (I had figured out from the audition sheet that we were doing "The Reckoning"), but I got Thailog. I was very, very excited. When I rehearsed my maniacal laugh, Thom kept coming in, and after rehearsals he insisted on joining in with me during the play, saying that it's what Sevarius would really do, and I wasn't about to stop Thom.

The play itself was good - I personally thought that I did marginally well (after I did my roar I lost my voice, and before that something had come up in my throat which threw off my voice) - but overall I had a lot of fun participating.

From there was the banquet, and I found myself sitting at Greg's table. The conversation was, well, scattered and not as lively as it could have been, but overall it was a good table to be at (I can't remember everybody I was sitting with… Revel and Spacebabie were there… I think).

The masquerade ball was fantastic - some great costumes there, Vinnie and the Owens standing out in my mind. I had expected more of a ball near the end, but I guess everybody just wanted to do their own thing at that point.

I skipped on the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and opted to join my illegal roommate A Fan in watching episodes of Gargoyles. We did that until about 1:30, after which point I went to bed.

Sunday:
I checked out at precisely 11:49:42 AM and had enough money left to make final bids on artwork (and won both bids). I stopped by the auction for a while, mostly to get Greg and Vic to sign my Radio Play script (Thom had signed it earlier).

I went down to the Atlantis Q&A long enough to hear the audio tape Greg played last year - the jokes and Gargoyles puns in it were no less humorous than the first time I had heard them. I headed over to Penn Station at about 1:40, and with my unreserved train ticket was able to get a spot on the 2:05 train headed back to DC - and it was almost 30 minutes late.

The train ride down was not nearly as good as the ride up. I was completely flanked by screaming or otherwise mischievous toddlers and children, and the PA system in my car was broken, letting out a piercing noise from the leg between New York to Newark. I got to read a little bit of my book, but the screaming coming from the kids made it impossible to concentrate.

The train pulled in to Washington at about 7:30 - a good two and a half hours later than scheduled, and my ride didn't show up for another 15 minutes after that. I arrived home at about 8:00 just in time to catch a Simpsons repeat and thus concluded my journey.

Greg responds...

Sounds pretty good. One thing I will say about the creepy thing is that it makes you memorable...

Response recorded on January 05, 2005

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Will Eisner, RIP

Just taking a moment to note with sadness the passing of comic book (or I should say sequential art) genius, Will Eisner. I met Will only once, when he came to speak to a gathering of DC Comics staffers in the mid 80s. (I was a very junior editorial staffer at the time.) But I've admired his work forever and found every Spirit I've ever read to be extremely instructive. And THE DREAMERS... wow!

Bye Will, and thank you.


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Vashkoda writes...

My Gathering reports tend to be very detailed, in the sense that I take notes on what's been said in the seminars/panels. As it stands, the total for G2003 is 5452 words. What follows here is a slightly abridged version.

Day 1: Friday 6/27/03

It was a hot and muggy Friday afternoon when Sean (NoBrandHero) and I left my Bronx apartment to take the bus and 2 train down to Penn Station. Having mugged Victor Cook before, and been to enough cons that we felt we didn't need to mug Thom or Greg, we decided that the first 'must-see' event of the day would be the voice acting seminar at 2:30, so we took our time.

We had scoped out the hotel a few months prior when we were in the neighborhood, and had been a little worried, not having spotted any big convention rooms on the first floor. It turns out all the big suite rooms are on the upper levels, so during the convention we would constantly be going back and forth between the 6th, 10th and 18th floors.
Anyways, the registration desk was easy to find. I was embarrassed that Greg Bishansky recognized me before I did him (he just doesn't look the same without a trench coat). We flashed our badges to the elevator guard and decided to first check out the con suite. When we got there, they had huge bags of food, but no videos running, so we left soon after to go to the Voice Acting workshop. We got lost for a short while before finally finding the London Suite. We opened the door and were surprised to see that Thom was still talking with his Mug-a-Guest group. Unlike the groups from '01, Thom was speaking before a room of people instead of a small group seated at a table. We snuck in and caught the tail end of the discussion (something about Thom voicing an Irish rabbit). Sadly, we missed him flashing his new tattoo. When Greg Weisman walked in, there was some playful banter about whose Mug-a-Guest had been better, and then we all settled down to listen.

Greg passed out scripts from three different scenes in Gargoyles for fans to have a go at. I would have liked to volunteer, but as luck would have it, I'd been suffering from bad allergies all week long on my trip abroad, and was only just recovering. I would occasionally break into fits of coughing and had practically no voice. A girl volunteered, and Greg asked for her name. She told him "Jill", quickly adding--with only the smallest bit of hesitation--"but my online name is Leopard". At that moment, I was struck by how odd all us fans must seem to a normal person. Of course, Greg took it all in stride, having grown accustomed to this sort of thing over the years. I can only imagine how scary it must have been for him at the first convention!

After the workshop were the Radio Play tryouts. I was debating whether or not to bother, with my croaky voice, so I put off the decision until later and went to the "History, Myths and Legends" panel, which this time around was hosted by Greg B., Lynati, Batya and Kathy. Most of them looked exhausted, being on the con staff and having worked hard to make everything run smoothly. Every now and then, Kathy would lose track of what she was saying and stare at her water bottle and go, "ooo, shiny!"

The topic can be summed up as: "how not to repeat what everyone else has written about and still make it interesting". The examples they used were mostly fairy tales, and we enjoyed making comparisons between the original stories and the way they've been altered over time.

Afterwards, we saw that there were still people grouped around the door for the auditions. Despite my protests that I had no voice, Seth (IRC Goliath) and Lanny finally convinced me (at least this time I could blame my voice for not getting selected. I'd tried in '99 and '01 and didn't get picked). I'd read Hudson and Angela for the audition those times, so I picked Goliath this time (because he had the fewest lines). Greg and Thom told me to project more (as usual), and I somehow managed to almost sound normal. After I went, only a few others were left, and then the group filed out en masse to the opening ceremonies. I hovered around Greg for a moment, then lost my nerve and used the excuse to grab the pitcher off his desk and refill my water bottle. I find Greg nice and all, but also somewhat unnerving. You never know what he's thinking. He smiles when he's talking to a large audience, but when he's sitting there alone at a table, his eyes begin to narrow dangerously, like he's just waiting for some foolish fan to dare interrupt his musings and ask him a question.

Then again, maybe his eyes look that way because he's tired. Or maybe I'm just paranoid.

The Ceremonies began in the usual way, with introductions and the 'how many here have been to this many cons' poll. Then the 2004 group came up, promoting the next con (and doing a pretty good job of it. Kanthara made a lengthy description of their classy yet affordable menu, which I'm sure was only intended to promote their con, yet to me, also sounded like a jab at this year's banquet (which was sort of mean, considering we hadn't even tasted this year's banquet yet. Well, I wouldn't taste it anyway since I didn't sign up, but still...). Their mascot is a blue and white Bronx-like gargoyle beast (Quebec's colors), and the con is slated to run from August 6th-8th. They mentioned the usual pre-registration discount and some new package deals, as well as a raffle with prizes like a free banquet and registration.

Then Greg repeated his original Gargoyles pitch (which most con-goers are familiar with by now), plus his videos. He reminded us that Disney still appreciates the cons (pointing out that they lent to us a beautiful spread of production art this year). Afterwards, Sean and I followed Seth, Wingless and Gorebash back to their room and hung out for a while before we finally decided on getting pizza down the street. After much picture taking and mosquito swatting and nebulous discussions about webpage design, we decided to check out the OtherCon Mug-a-Guest. Thom was as shameless as ever, and the questions drifted to the expected topics. I kept falling asleep--not because it was boring, but because I was still on European time and was incredibly jetlagged. Lanny and Sean had fun poking me awake every five minutes. One big revelation: as some people have suspected, Greg plans for Lexington to be homosexual, but he hasn't yet figured out how it will be introduced. This explains why in "Turf", he gave up so easily on chasing Angela. His mate will not be someone we know from the show.

We finally left around 1:30 AM, and from what I hear, everyone was thrown out of the room soon after. After a long subway ride through the Bronx, we were home by 2:30 and quickly fell asleep.

Day 2: Saturday 6/28/03

I'm a little grateful I auditioned for the Radio Play the day before, as I didn't need to feel guilty over missing the morning auditions on Saturday. Unfortunately, sleeping in did mean that I would miss the TGS premiere of Season 4 Pendragon (which I had been looking forward to, but told myself the premiere would make it out on the web soon enough). The first panel we made it to, therefore, was the two o'clock "Writing for Animation and Series Development" workshop.

Greg and Vic headed the session. Paul Lacy was supposed to show up, but never did (it seemed from the schedule that he was only going to be at the con for this one seminar, which I thought was a little bizarre, but I guess might explain why he didn't bother coming. Greg did not look happy though, and I wonder what kind of hot water Paul's going to find himself in later). Anyways, they started by discussing Gargoyles, and the lessons they've discovered about the industry since then. As an example, Greg once more showed the videos for the spin-offs he tried to pitch: "Dark Ages" and "New Olympians". Originally, Greg Kline (Greg Weisman's boss) seemed ready to approve the spin-offs. Unfortunately, Kline was soon replaced with Dean Valentine, who decided Disney didn't need any more action cartoons. Dean was then replaced by Charles, who got replaced by David, who got replaced by Barry. Now Disney is back to wanting action cartoons. Greg and Vic showed us a video of the show they're trying to sell. I'm not sure I'm allowed to discuss it, so all I will say is that it has potential. On the surface, it looks much like the other cartoons Disney's released in the last few years. But there is an added plot element that you can immediately recognize as Greg's style, adding another layer of complexity to the story that promises a progressive storyline. Oh, and another thing I'll say is that Crispin Freeman voiced the main character in the pitch, which was really cool. ;)

After the workshop was the radio play rehearsal. I was excited that I could finally stick around and see what happened during one of these closed-door events. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention--I actually got cast as Elisa. It figures that the one time my voice goes bad, I get picked. Of course, I only had a line and a half, so I think Greg was taking pity on me. The doors were shut, and then the rest of the cast... well, they just stood around in little clusters and talked. I nudged Seth and asked what was going on, and being a veteran of many previous radio plays, he just shrugged and said this was the way it typically started.

Finally, Greg started calling out our names and directed us to certain seats. Hearing people's names called out and associating each name with a face actually allowed me to figure out who a lot of fans were (and I think some people finally figured out who I was). I must admit that the con badges were done well this year in that only your online name was printed, and in big letters. The only problem was that they dangled from a string, which meant they were more often than not hanging down at waist level where your eyes don't immediately drift to, and oftentimes that tags flipped over, making a discreet peek at the name of the person waving to you all but impossible. We picked up our scripts and discovered that we'd be acting out "The Reckoning". It was one of the episodes Greg Sperling worked on, and as Greg explained to us, this year's radio play was being dedicated to his memory. We could have also performed "Golem" or "Bushido" for that same reason, but since Lexington wasn't in either one and Thom would be acting in the play with us, Greg wanted to give him the option to do Lex. As it turned out, Thom wanted to play Sevarius instead. Which turned out for the best, I think, especially since Gabriel can do a pretty good Lex impersonation. In fact, I was very impressed with this year's cast. Batya "The Toon" Levin was amazing as Demona--I mean, her voice was just dripping with venom and cynicism. Stephen Sobotka stumbled a bit during the first read through, but the next time around and during the actual play, he was great as Goliath--he had the emotions down pat, with a nice, deep voice that I could easily picture was Goliath's. Alex Wittenberg cracked me up with his Fang impersonation. Emambu did a fairly good Scottish accent for Hudson, even if he refused to believe it. Sarah the Great was a great Brooklyn, successfully imitating his sarcastic style. I forget who did Thailog, but when he and Thom began chuckling maniacally at each other, I wanted to die laughing. All the others were great at their roles too, and I felt particularly sympathetic to the ones who voiced the clones, because more than half their lines were just growls and grunts, which really are hard to do (especially when Greg keeps telling you to project, even though you know you'll sound silly). And Seth deserves special mention for tolerating being cast as Claw (though he was also technically our one understudy). The audience did get a big kick out of seeing him play his part, though (which consisted of standing up as his action line was read by Greg, and then sitting right back down).

The Radio Play went smoothly, though as usual, there was a lot of waiting involved (this time, due to the kitchen staff wanting to take over the room to set up for the banquet, which followed right after). Not having signed up for the banquet, Sean and I went to a nice Malaysian restaurant on the upper west side, then took our time getting back, taking pictures along the way. We headed back to the banquet room for the masquerade. Nichelle Nichols had already left, but apparently she had indeed been there and expressed gratitude towards the fandom (she still charged $20 for her autograph, though....) The masquerade was fun, especially the Cosplay between Kanthara and Patrick (dressed as Fox and Anastasia Renard, respectively). As usual, there were several Owens and a garg or two. Revel was amazing as Vinnie, and we had a nice Gruoch and Robyn the Hunter, as well as escapees from The Matrix.

The awards ceremony was dedicated entirely to artwork, so I suppose no one entered the other contests this year, which is a real shame. Thom continued the yearly tradition of dropping his pants, before Dreamie awarded him with a belt and a padlock (there was mention of auctioning the key). Siryn was named the fan guest of honor, with loud applause from the audience (you deserve it, Si!). Before the dancing began, Sean and I escaped to take the express bus home. Sadly, I left my bag of leftovers on the table. Hopefully it made some poor custodian very happy.

Day 3: Sunday 6/29/03

The worst thing about the last day of the con was that everything started and ended early, forcing us out of bed when we really could have used several more hours of sleep (the downside to commuting to the con, I guess). We wanted to be there for the auction, since we had agreed to join a pool with Seth and others for the combined Team Atlantis: "The Last" script, tape and storyboards. The autograph signing was also supposed to happen concurrently, and I wanted to get my Radio Play script and calendar signed. Of course, I needed to get my calendar, first. I had been dodging in and out of the Dealer's Room/Art Room all weekend, wondering how I was going to go about getting one. I was supposed to get one for free, since my pic of Brooklyn on the subway actually made it into the calendar, but I hadn't received one with the rest of my con materials. It seemed a bit rude to just go up to the desk and demand one (and the con probably needed the money, and here I was, asking one for free). I was kind of hoping that Dreamie would act as an intermediary for me, since I know her from online and she was part of the staff, but whenever I saw her she had that same tired and dazed expression as the rest of the con staff.

I retreated back to the auction, which seemed to take forever. Seth was getting antsy, but we all clung to the hope that the more items auctioned first, the poorer the rest of the fans would be, and the less competition we'd have for the Team Atlantis combo. Finally it was Greg who prompted the sale of the package, since he had to take the stuff to the Team Atlantis Q&A downstairs. We watched the bids go up slowly, starting at close to $150 and rising by small increments. Initially we thought we could get away with it for $300, but somewhere along the way, the bid jumped to $500, then hovered around $650. "Going once...going twice...". Seth groaned when Kat and Aaron began offering more incentives to raise the bid. At last he was forced to announce a bid, drawing surprise from the audience. Maybe they had heard stories of him and were scared off...maybe they felt like being nice because he had explained to the room all the different kinds of Skybox Gargoyles cards in existence...or maybe they really had run out of money. Whatever the reason, Seth finally got it...for $750. Having chipped in the most for it, none of us would begrudge him the honor of keeping the originals. But first they would be used in the Q&A, so we followed Greg and Vic to the panel.

Greg began by telling us a bit of the history of the show, which Tadd Stones produced. Apparently, they had ten episodes ready to ship for animation ("The Kraken" was #6. "The Last" wasn't yet far enough along), and in the end, the execs picked three of these to turn into a made-for-video movie, adding a framing sequence between the episodes so that it all made sense (which was almost the equivalent to a fourth episode). The "movie" introduces a new character, the 'lava-whale' Obie, voiced by Frank Welker so that it sounds almost exactly like Bronx. Greg mentioned that originally there had been a pilot planned (which didn't get made) that shows how Atlantis is causing magical disturbances on the surface, and when Milo and Kida go up to investigate, the passage back gets blocked up, trapping them there. The goal of the characters throughout the series is finding a new way back down to Atlantis. The series would span twenty years (1920's-1940's), but thanks to their Atlantean crystals, none of the cast would age (but secondary characters like Andre's nephew would).

When the Q&A finished, I realized it was 'now or never', and rushed to the Art Room. I managed to convince the person manning the table that I was supposed to get one, and ran with it back to the banquet room. There, I got Greg and Vic Cook to sign it and my script (both remarked that they really liked my pic, which totally made my day). I found the courage at last to ask Greg a question Denis had asked that I pass on, and to ask a question of my own. There had been a discussion in the S8 CR about where and how the Gargoyles and Team Atlantis universes intersected because of "The Last". Greg confirmed that it would only be for that episode, and that the differences would have been more clear had the other episodes been made. For instance, they had their own version of the Loch Ness monster, and even Puck would make an appearance (but in a different guise, though this wouldn't necessarily distinguish the two universes, since the show takes place in the 1920-1940 era, when for all we know Puck could have decided to take that form). I asked Greg if he had tried to influence the way the other eps were written to try to keep the universe rules similar to Gargoyles, but Greg said absolutely not--it was Tadd's show.

I then signed up for G2004 since it was just $20, though there's a chance I'll be on the wards then and won't be able to go. I think I am fated to only make the odd-year cons.

The Gathering ended with Closing Ceremonies (well, there was also the Coney Island trip and the New York tour led by A Fan, but we didn't go). The exhausted staff thanked everyone, some announcements were made, and then Greg said a word or two. We then said our goodbyes, taking a final picture before exiting the hotel. We walked past several Wonder Women going up the elevators, which told us that however odd our little fandom might appear, the hotel staff had seen far, far more bizarre things.

We had a fun time, and it's great to see new material every year, both from the fans and the cast/staff. We are lucky to have such an amazing fandom, which is truly a reflection of the quality of the show. I hope our numbers keep growing, and that Disney continues to support us, and perhaps one day allow Greg to continue the "Gargoyles" story.

Greg responds...

Great report Vash, but I have to respond to a few things...

*Can I just say that I have narrow eyes. My daughter has them too. It's genetic. I may zone out when I'm not "on". But I'm rarely thinking about how I'm going to pounce on the next fan that "disturbs" me. Truth is, I'm fairly shy. I have no fear of public speaking. But I'm lousy at small talk and intimate conversation isn't my strong suit unless or until I know the other person very well.

In general, however, I'd like all Gathering attendees to feel free to approach me to conversate. I may not be good at it, but I'm game, so TRY me!

*I can't remember why Paul didn't show. I'm sure I was disappointed, but Paul was never in trouble. (Gee, you must think I pull the wings off butterflies in my spare time.) Paul lives in NJ, so although he was welcome to come for as much of the con as he wanted, we thought that particular seminar made the most sense.

*Greg Kline. Greg Kline is a good guy. He's a free-lance writer and editor who's partnered with Tom Pugsley. But he wasn't my boss at Disney. That was Gary Krisel and/or Bruce Cranston.

*Tad Stones. One d there.

Response recorded on January 04, 2005

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kathy writes...

The Gathering 2003 - New York "Home at Last"

Thursday
Okay, I've printed off all my receipts, figured out bus and subway stops, fitted three bags of peanut M&Ms and my clothes into my daypack and a variety of odd bits into my carry bag. Dang, no room for the book I'm reading: Saturn's Child. We'll, there is, but I'll probably finish the thing before I leave Knoxville and I don't want to carry deadweight.

Two hours in the airport with CNN travel news that won't stop. I wish I'd brought the book.

Knoxville to LaGuardia Airport. On the plane I saw the smoothest pick up ever and it was between two women (as opposed to the worst ever which was a desperate guy hitting on a girl in the Village, which was just pathetic.) Casual conversation led to career talk that segued to a job offer. The pair got off the plane in New York to have lunch and seal the deal. I was in awe. Anyway, the M60 bus to Astoria subway station. (Hint to NY transit folks: people coming from the airport stand a fair chance of being tourists, consequently, announcing bus and train stops would be considered helpful.) Got off at 34th and Herald Square and promptly got turned around. Took a pass around Macy's, figured out where I was and "Hello, Hotel Pennsylvania!"

Started to check in. Got in line anyway and decided to call Greg Bishansky to let him know I was there. They were getting pizza. Pizza suddenly sounded like a really good idea. Hooked up with the majority of the ConStaff and had lunch.

Back to the Registration Desk. Easy. Thank you, Hotels.com. Next stop luggage room to pick up the box of convention tee shirts. Nice guy at the luggage room said he'd have them delivered to my room. Cool. Wish I'd waited a little while longer and had them delivered to the ConSuite instead. Oh well, a little exercise never hurt anybody.

ConSuite: Busy. Very Busy. I folded teeshirts and later helped stuff registration packets. Mandolin, my roomie two year's running, finally arrived after a tedious train trip. We caught up a little bit and then it was back to the ConSuite for a meeting and Pep Rally Sushi Dinner. Good sushi. Monster Sushi. Great company. Too bad they split us up because the tables were smallish.

Back to the hotel and the last normal night's sleep of the weekend.

Friday
Meh, woke up to the sound of the alarm on my cell phone. Found out the shower is jet propelled. Out and dressed to see what needed doing. Walked to Kinko's with Winterwolf and made some copies. Walked back alone because he was doing last minute computer stuff. Staff meeting. Pulled the assignment of minding the Skytop Ballroom where most of the big events were. Fabu. Alan came back with the convention programs and we stuffed them into the packets. Greg Weisman, Carol and I went to breakfast since the rest of the ConStaff was happy with soda and Pop Tarts. We ended up at Lindy's, which was a mistake. Greg's tomato juice was fermented. We did see Lou Ferrigno. He was appearing at the convention across the street. I felt bad about breakfast since mine was the swing vote to stay so I picked up the tab.

At some point thereafter it was back to the Consuite. The Dreamer Clan had arrived to set up the hospitality portion of the convention. It was great to see Batya and Alex, Constance, A Fan, Kellie and others whose names regretfully escape. Unfortunately, the weekend is blurry in places (I blame the hotel ventilation system) and events that occurred in the same room have kind of bled into each other. However, I do remember that Hudson and several members of his security crew were there as well and they were instrumental in helping my pull off the "Peanut M & M" prank on Greg Weisman.

The what? Okay, so it was a dumb joke, but I make my own fun. One day on the Staff mailing list Greg remarked in response to an email that he was a "Peanut M&M kind of guy". Now who could leave a comment like that alone? Goaded by Patrick aka "Puck" Toman, who is responsible for creating all kinds of mischief and seldom gets his own hands dirty in the process, I decided to make sure that Greg would get as many packets of M&Ms over the course of the weekend as possible. Hence the 48 or so mini bags of candy in my carry on.

The short of it was: every time I was in the middle of a group of people I recruited more helpers. And over the course of the weekend Greg ended up with more little bags of M&M's.

Like I said, I make my own fun.

Gah, headache. I went to check on the ballroom because our first event of the day "Clan Wars" was supposed to take place there. The room was made up for a banquet! Water pitchers on every table, cups stacked neatly. I caught a quick flash of what the room would look like after the Nerf Battles had gotten done with it and had a fast consult with the head waiter. Fortunately, he was cool about it and the room was soon safe for the warriors to take the field.

Greg's Mug a Guest - Easy. And the first bag of M&Ms dropped.
Noel's panel - Couldn't swing an easel, but things worked out anyway. Good. I needed a lunch break and time to clear my head.

Good deeds seldom go unpunished. I bugged out of the hotel long enough to pick up lunch for Greg and Thom who were locked in back to back Voice Acting seminar and then Radio Play auditions. Thom mentioned how much he was jonesing for Nathan's hot dogs and there was a Nathan's on the corner. Pick up dogs and sodas, swing by London Suite should have been easy. Unfortunately, Thom makes his own fun too. He got me. Good. Too bad I was already sleep deprived and not on form. Why is it the best comebacks occur way too late to do any good?

Oh well. I had to panel to co-present with Lynati, Greg Bishansky, and Batya: History, Myths, and Legends. In hindsight this was probably a stellar example of why Convention Staffers shouldn't try to present content too. We actually had a program of discussion outlined, but with all the last minute rushing around, the prep kind of went out the window. Still, we had a good roundtable discussion and it seemed like people enjoyed themselves.

Panel over. Time to set up for Opening Ceremonies. Tables and chairs reset - check. Uh, where's the AV stuff? Second headache. Fortunately, easily resolved. Chris Rogers to the rescue!

For me, the Gatherings have become more and more like family reunions. Opening Ceremonies has become the part where people drag out the old movies and tell the old stories, but you don't groan because you've heard them for the 72nd time, instead they make you feel all warm and mushy, because you're back with people you care about. Kinda dumb, I know. But it's nice. Anyway, G2003 did their thing, thanking everyone for attending, G2004 plugged Montreal, and Greg played the pitch tapes and leica reel.

Out to dinner to a place called the American. Upscale diner food. Greg, his friend Doug, Vic Cook, Carol, Patrick and Mandi. We did appetizer and dessert roulette. Yummy.

Oh dang, Greg has to be back for a late night Mug a Guest. Time to take a late jog through Manhattan. Who'd a thunk Greg would be so fast when he put his mind to it?

The Mug was a stitch, though sitting all classroomy like with Greg and Thom behind a table was kind of odd. Late night Mugs thrive on familiarity and informality and it took a bit to get things rolling. But roll they did. Right into the gutter and out again. It lasted until after 2AM and would have gone later had the hotel staff not pulled the plug.

Saturday

kip the shower, go for the bath. Oh look. The bath water is as dark as coffee, maybe a good Kenya roast. Run it for a bit, it gets down to a nice ice tea color. Oh well, you do what you have to do.

Staff Meeting - Hey wait a minute what do you mean you want me to chair the meeting? I haven't had coffee yet! Okay, ran down the action items and went to go check on the Ballroom. Why is it made up with tables all over again? Oh, Clan Wars Round II. Reset the room again. It went pretty quick but I still don't know how to set the AV stuff up. You'd think I'd learn to stare at the back of the speakers and video equipment, but no. Fortunately, Aaron was there to sort it out and I went to do my first solo workshop: Three Scenarios in Search of a Story.

It seemed like a good idea at the time I proposed it: let's make the Writing Track as much about writing as talking about writing. So of course, having put my foot in, I had to go up to my neck. I devised a writing exercise that sounded fun, at least on paper: here are three scenarios - write the opening sentence, an outline of the story that would go with and the final paragraph. My six attendees wrote up a storm. Now the kicker: all three events happened within the same story. Write the point where they intersect. There were groans from a few participants and then frantic scratching as pens and pencils raced along binder paper and note cards. At "Pencils down" we had time to hear several of the results. It was everything I could have hoped for. Everyone had a different take on events and there were some genuinely good stories in the process of being created. Best yet, the audience had fun doing the exercise.

Hey, I finally had time to sit down and watch a panel! At least most of one: Series Development. Animation and the industry that surrounds it has changed so much in such a short time. Actually, entertainment in general has. It boggles the mind that anything new makes it to the screen. I yanked Patrick out of the end of the panel because we still hadn't had time to do a final run through for the seminar we were co presenting: Am I Blue?

It should have been called "How Long Can Kathy Go Before She's Distracted by a Shiny Object?" I've never been a happy public speaker. It took me an extra quarter to graduate from college because while the Dean of the College of Agriculture at Cal Poly could get me out of Cereal Crops, he couldn't wave the university requirement for a speech class. Over the years, I've learned to put my nerves into my presentations. I move around, I clutch at a marker or chalk or other props like a lifeline, I grab audience comments and run with them, anything to keep things lively. Unfortunately, while that approach works to an extent as a solo presenter, it tends to leave co presenters scrambling. Sorry, Patrick. We're a great writing team, but we've got to work on stage presence. On the upside, the writing exercise we did at the end was a success. Yay us! And I got to talk for a bit with Ellen, Dylan and Mooncat among others for a bit.

Another bought of post presentation nerves. Good thing Thom wasn't around to see. I'd have never lived it down if he'd seen me bolting for the Ladies hand over my mouth.

Radio Play - The Reckoning. The performance was dedicated to Gary Sperling. A card for his two children was presented to the assembled fandom for sympathy and well wishes. Greg planned to present it after the Gathering to the Sperling family.

The Banquet - How hard can it be to seat tables with one special guest, a member of Constaff and fill the rest with fans? We'd come up with a scheme that made a certain degree of sense - except it didn't. So the tickets the fans were handed were void and a simple count off applied instead. Those immortal words: Keep it simple, stupid, were suddenly apropos.

Anyway, our very first Star Trek/Gargoyles guest Nichelle Nichols arrived. We "borrowed her" when we found out she was appearing at the convention at Madison Square Gardens. Actually, we found out she was appearing across the street, and Carol talked her management into letting her come over for dinner and a book signing. This was no small feat as Trek actors' management watch over their people and their interests like nervous hens. But a deal was struck and there she was sharing buffet salmon, chicken and roast beef plus that dessert bar with us!

(As a minor aside, if you see Carol at the next Gathering, go up to her say hello and thank you. This woman has done an incredible job year after year making sure our guests have a great time at the Gathering and she is a huge asset to our Convention Staffs and Fandom. This isn't meant to denigrate any other staffers past or future, it's a tremendous undertaking to host a convention and the individuals brave or foolhardy enough to do so deserve all of our thanks.)

After the meal the Q&A was open for business. No one wanted to be first so, I stuck my hand up to get things rolling. Fortunately, I'd read enough of Saturn's Child to get a feel for it and so I commented about the awesome amount of world building involved and that broke the ice. Eventually, the Q & A turned to Gargoyles and what it was like to voice and design art for "Mark of the Panther". It's still one of my favorite "world tour" episodes for the stunning artwork that accompanied the tale of Anansi.

I bought a copy of Saturna's Quest and had Ms. Nichols sign it. She's a lovely woman who's had an amazing life. When she gets her one-woman show mounted I hope she stops in Knoxville. Or Atlanta even. It'd be worth a couple of hundred miles drive to see her sing the blues.

The Masquerade - I watched. I talked to people. Lanny worked on the knots in my shoulder that had been plaguing me all weekend. I owe him and Goliath 116 a huge debt of gratitude for keeping me mostly pain free. When the judges left to make their determinations I dumped the last of a bag of M&Ms on the judges' table which led to Greg to ask the room at large "What is it with the M&Ms?"

(I eventually fessed up. And even if I hadn't I was caught on videotape.)

I bailed on the dance for a tour of the Village with Lanny, Patrick, Thom, Carol and Greg . Stupidly, I left my bag behind because we were going walking and I was tired of lugging it around. Unfortunately, my wallet was in my bag and I didn't know that walking included a subway ride and a late supper at Caliente Cab Company who almost didn't let me in because I had no I.D. I'm over 21, already! While I suppose I should take it as a compliment that people might think otherwise, it's still a pain in the arse. Lucky for me, Greg bailed me out and picked up the tab for the subway and supper. Thanks, Greg. :)

It was a fun night and the conversation both on the street and around the table was lively and it continued once we got back to the hotel into the wee hours.

Sunday
Oh god. I totally overslept and I wanted to go watch the Munster Hurling Semi Finals. Sleeping until 12:30 meant I missed that and the morning staff meeting. Sorry guys.

Back to Nathan's for breakfast. Or would that be lunch? Either way, it was a hot dog.

Caught the tail end of the Team Atlantis Q & A. It's obvious listening to both Vic and Greg talk that it's a frustrating business trying to make entertainment these days and yet they keep plugging away at the system.
The snippet of Milo's Return they showed looked pretty good, engaging but with an edge. It's now on my list (getting longer all the time) of DVDs to buy.

The auction was in progress when I got to the ballroom. It suddenly occurred to me how to make it less of a tag on event and more of a feature attraction so I duly handed the idea off to the G2004 staff. They're a great bunch and next year already sounds like it's going to be a corker.

Closing Ceremonies. So long. Farewell. Auf Weidersehen. Goodbye. Thanks for coming and see you next year. I ponied up my $20.00 for early pre-reg.

Soon we were off to Coney Island with a detour to the 9-11 site. I have to say, I was extremely uncomfortable there. I have no connections to New York. I didn't know anybody who died that day. That wasn't it. The dead weren't at rest or maybe it was the living still at odds with the tragedy. Very unsettling. It's the only way I can describe it. I live across the street from a cemetery. As my husband likes to quip, "we live in a great location, the neighbors are quiet." And they are. When you walk the grounds it's peaceful. I didn't have that feeling in at the crash site. I was glad to get back on the subway.

Greg counted us off. Twenty-seven people - a group that big is bound to get separated. Everybody gets a map and a buddy.

Coney Island. Hey the beach! I miss the beach. Look Nathan's, the original. Can we have food? Nope. First it's to the gates of Astroland so we can figure out where and when we're going to meet back up. Ten? Cool. To be honest, I'm tired of this place already and it was my idea to come here. I've got to say that Patrick did a great job on organizing the trip. Thanks, Patrick! It's loud. It's bright. And it's totally polar opposite to what I'm in the mood for. Can't we ditch this scene and go find some jazz? Oh well, live in the moment. The group breaks up and Greg, Patrick and I head to Nathan's where we're met by Wingless and Seth. Chili dogs this time. I thrive on variety. We eat dinner and then go ride the Cyclone.

Well that was quick and somewhat painful. It was also the only ride I was up for. Except for the "bathroom ride". .25 and you too can be grossed out in a funhouse disguised as a public facility. The guys decide they need to try it too. They knew Greg must be a celebrity, because they charged him .30.

Yay! The boardwalk. This is better. Good conversation. Good friends. The glare of Astroland fades as we walk and enjoy the sound of the surf. Too soon it's ten and time to head back to the hotel.

People must have thought we were odd on the trip back. Greg kept counting us off like we were remedial first graders. But there was a huge round of applause as we disembarked the subway and all twenty seven were present and accounted for.

Wait. I thought this was New York. You know "the city that never sleeps?" So why can't we find a place to get breakfast at midnight? We end up getting ice cream at Penn Station and even that was settling after the quest for donuts was met with failure. Sure the place was open, but it was also sold out. Not fair. I want protein. There's a KFC one kiosk over and the ice cream line is a mile long. I figure I can get some chicken and be back before the last cone is dipped. Oops, wrong. Sorry, Dad. ;)

Consuite this time. Most of the staff is there. Many people are there. Cowboy Bebop: the Movie is playing. I'm interested, because I liked the series and missed the film when it zipped through the local theater, but I'm burning out fast. I eat some chicken fingers and drink my grapefruit juice and go to bed.

Monday
Another tea colored bath. Meh. At least the water is hot and the tub is comfy. I've talked Mandi into going to Chinatown with me but she's still sleeping so I went to go get some coffee and take care of check out. For some reason I'm in a really evil mood. Down doesn't quite cover it. I guess I'm feeling one of the darker shades of the blues, but I can't put my finger on why as I'm suddenly fighting not to sob into my latte.

Hello bootstraps. Pull!

Better. Must have been a stress reaction. Or maybe it's realizing that most of my closest friends I only get to see once a year and now that time has past. What did Batya say when we were talking about something similar yesterday? First come the happy tireds and then the monster ones? Not quite it, but close.

I get myself together just as A Fan, who's come to lead a walking tour enters the lobby and people I know start assembling in the lobby. We brace Fan for subway directions to Chinatown, and we're on our way.
Almost. We ran into Vic Cook and his daughter Hannah on their way out. When we tell him where we're headed he tells us to watch out for the great deals on DVDs.

A couple of wrong turns getting to the right subway station and then we're there. Almost. First we have to figure out where exactly we are in relationship to where we want to go. Okay, so I didn't think this trip all the way through. The morning passes quickly and I even find a useful addition for my reference library in a bookshop. No DVDs, but the bra ladies were out in force.

Lunchtime. We nearly ate Chinese, even waited in a really busy restaurant for a while, but it was getting late and eventually, I had to get back on the subway to head to the airport. We took a short detour into Little Italy and had wonderful tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella salad and pasta instead. Still, I had this goofy feeling that I was missing something important in Chinatown.

I have a screwy sense of precognition that kicks up (or in) every once in a while. Unfortunately, aside from getting a sense of BAD! Or Watch Out! Or Peanut Butter Pie! (That last one happened as I was writing this and it was just strange. Also a completely different story.) It seldom supplies specifics. But over the years I've learned to pay attention to it because more often than not, it's accurate. I asked Mandi if she wouldn't mind poking around a couple of more shops and we headed back in.

Trinkets, pretty clothes, nope, not what I'm looking for. It would help if I had a better idea but the notion is adamant with out providing any clues. Couldn't we just get one of those bubble teas? At least they're interesting looking. One last shop. Mandi finds a carved elephant that would make a perfect gift and she decides to buy it. The feeling starts to fade. Heh, maybe the psychic nudge wasn't meant for me after all.

Dang, look at the time. We break for the subway. Mandi gets off at the stop near the hotel and I keep going. It's back to Knoxville via La Guardia and Ronald Reagan (D.C) airports and for this year anyway, the Gathering is over.

Greg responds...

That was great! I love reading these things. And I remember most of it!

But how did Thom "get" you? That I've forgotten.

Response recorded on January 04, 2005

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Denis De Plaen writes...

Hello, Greg!

Sorry I couldn't attend the Gathering, this year. you have asked in the Comment Room to post here the journals of the gathering. Of course, not having been there, I couldn't post any, but I though I could still help a bit by posting what follows.

Best regards,
Denis

to Disney Executives, hello.

While fellow Gargoyles fans will post their convention's logs and journal, I will say this:
I'm a Gargoyles fan from Brussels, Belgium. Due to personnal, real life issues, I wasn't able to attend the Gathering this year, to my chagrin.
I have, in the past, attended Gathering, in 1998 in NYC, in 2000 in Orlando, 2001 Los Angeles and 2002 in Williamsburg. Both because it allowed me to meet up with online friends, but also to support Gargoyles, which is for me one of the greatest animated show ever made and that is very special to me. It revealed to me my vocation of writing fiction, it broadened my mind, views and tastes, and it gave me the opportunity to meet with dozen, hundreds people, and many of them have become my friends.
Gargoyles was, IS, an extraordinary show, an amazing story of which many chapters are left to be told.

I don't know what else to add except thank you to you all for giving us fans such a great story, and I hope that, eventually, we will be able to discover new stories featuring the gargoyles.

Denis De Plaen,
Brussels, 12th July 2003

Greg responds...

Thanks, Denis. Every little bit helps. I hope to see you in Vegas.

Response recorded on January 03, 2005

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Roberta Bonaime writes...

Hey Greg!
This has been bugging me for a looooong time. Where did Owen/Puck get off to during the whole gathering thing?

Greg responds...

I'm not sure I understand the question. Both Owen & Puck appeared in the Gathering episodes. Do you mean during that brief period between when Owen "abandoned" Xanatos and then resurfaced to help fight Oberon?

If so, I haven't given it any thought. It was, at most, a matter of hours, so I'm sure he didn't go far.

Response recorded on January 03, 2005

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hey gang,

I'm back in town after a great holiday (tempered by the tragedy in Asia). I hope all of you are doing well.

Well, the holiday gift-giving season has passed, but please keep spreading the word about the Gargoyles DVD. Buena Vista Home Entertainment will begin discussing whether or not to produce a DVD of the second season in February, so the more sales we rack up between now and then, the better.



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