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Blaise writes...

GATHERING OF THE GARGOYLES

FINAL THOUGHTS

Due to my own limited funds, as well as my young age (17) at the time, I was unable to attend the first Gathering. In fact, I have only been able to attend the Gathering three times: in 2001, 2006, and this most recent one. In short, only the ones in and around Los Angeles. This was because travel and lodging were expenses I could ill afford. And for those last two (2006 and 2009), I didn't know if I would be able to pay the registration fee until (literally) two months before the Gathering. For that reason, I consider myself supremely fortunate to have been able to attend this, the last Gathering.

The Gathering was always something I loved to hear about, even when I wasn't there. And it was something I always felt was worth looking forward to. I looked forward to the day when I would be able to afford a trip beyond LA. Heck, let's be honest: I looked forward to a day when, like Karine, I would cross from "fan" to "professional" (actor, in my case) and be given that nifty "Guest" ribbon! Have my very own Mug-a-Guest, panels and everything! Yeah, yeah, I know--my swelled head makes it difficult to walk through doors. ;-)

And, of course, I regret not being able to go to any of the other Gatherings (especially the one in Montreal that the DVD crew filmed). I also kick myself for not being more proactive and helping out the staff for the LA conventions.

But, I am thankful for what I did have.

-The 2001 Gathering has a special place in my heart, simply for being my first Gathering. And the BIGGEST, I've every been to. Seriously, we had SO MANY panels in that first LA convention. And JEFF BENNETT! One of my favorite actors (I wish I could have gone to his Mug-a-Guest: he seemed like such a cool guy). Plus, we had a panel where fans got to try their hand at reading bits of "Gargoyles" episodes (specifically "Vows" and "M.I.A.") outside of the radio play or its auditions. And alongside Morgan Sheppard and Crispin Freeman, to boot. A couple of folks even got to try dubbing anime (I didn't have a chance to do that, but I did get to read for Goliath in the "M.I.A." scene--which was very intimidating, given how light my voice is in comparison to Keith David's--and Brooklyn's audition side). This was also the only convention I brought a costume for: Nought. I didn't enter the Masquerade contest, but I did thoroughly enjoy myself that night, as I did throughout the entire con. I think I got the most autographs from that one. But one of the biggest things was finally meeting everyone I had known online in person. It was great putting faces to names, learning the real names behind the 'net monikers, and just being able to talk with them face to face.
And for the "Hunter's Moon: Part 3" radio play, I was Matt Bluestone. It was so fun--and my first real chance to perform with professional actors from the show.

-2006 I remember mostly because I was at such a tough point in my finances I couldn't afford to drive the 30 miles back and forth to Valencia for each of the 4 days. So I drove up there once, parked in the hotel's free parking, and slept in my truck (it had a camper shell over the bed so I was comfortable) until the Gathering was over. I couldn't go to the Banquet for this one, unfortunately, but I still had a great time. The first issue of the comic had come out, so there was plenty to talk about. And on the first day, Crispin and Thom held a panel where I finally got to try my hand at dubbing a scene from an anime. Other than a particularly egregious P-pop, I feel I did pretty well for my first attempt. Plus, there was that HUGE room of voice-actors from "W.I.T.C.H." (and I still feel a little guilty about asking a question that caused the panel to go over time). This one wasn't as big as the first LA Gathering, but still a very nice size, with plenty of panels to choose from (and torture me with not being able to go to them all). Since this was my second Gathering, I felt a bit more open and comfortable with other people, especially those I remembered from my first time. In a way, that made this my most..."relaxed" Gathering.
And the radio play was "The Mirror." I'm still surprised that my Broadway managed to sound kind of like the real thing.

-And 2009...well, I've just gone into all the details over the past few days. It was not the biggest of the Gathering's I had been to, no...but in some ways the smaller, more intimate nature of it helped to make it all the more memorable. Not to mention all the voices that participated in the radio play (which was the most fun of the three, just for all the in-jokes and references if nothing else).

God...I count myself fortunate for each of the Gathering's I've gone to, and doubly fortunate for making it to the last one. I don't know what's going to happen next year, or the year after that. I still hold on to hope that, like the series it's based on, the Gathering will return in some form or another (or at least another "Gargoyles" convention like it). Until then, though, I have my memories, my radio play scripts, and the friends I've made (as well as the DVDs and comics the Gathering made possible). Not a bad legacy, all things considered.

Greg responds...

Nope. Not bad at all...

Response recorded on January 15, 2010

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RADIO PLAY: The History

I posted this in the comment room, but Todd suggested I repost it here...

RADIO PLAYS...

Sometimes I just don't have anything Gargoyles for us to do. And I'm not sure if just doing old episodes is all that interesting. And the other things have been fun... at least it seemed that way to me.

Here's a history of the works of the GATHERING PLAYERS...

1998 - RAIN OF THE GHOSTS (an unproduced pilot I wrote)
1999 - THE ROSWELL CONSPIRACIES (a rejected pilot I wrote)
2000 - ROUGHNECKS: THE STARSHIP TROOPERS CHRONICLES (the last arc of the series, which I story edited, half of which was unproduced. Written by me, Jon Weisman Lydia Marano, Cary Bates and Michael Reaves.)
2001 - GARGOYLES: "Hunter's Moon, Part Three" (Note: this was the first time that we actually did something gargoyles related for the radio play. This included scenes that were cut for time from the original. Written by Michael Reaves.)
2002 - TEAM ATLANTIS: "The Last" (Unproduced episode featuring Demona and Fiona Canmore, written by me)
2003 - GARGOYLES: "The Reckoning" (Performed in honor of Gary Sperling, who co-wrote the script with Lydia.)
2004 - GARGOYLES: "The Journey" (my uncut version of the script)
2005 - DOC SHAKESPEARE (An unproduced pilot written by myself and Sam Bernstein)
2006 - GARGOYLES: "The Mirror" (written by Lydia Marano and Brynne Chandler Reaves)
2007 - GARGOYLES: "Clan Building, Chapters III, IV & V: Invitation Only, Masque & Bash" - (from the comic, premeiring chapter V before it was published. Written by me...)
2008 - Geez, I should probably figure this out soon...

Anyway, you can see that traditionally, we've only done something gargish about half the time. For me it's fun to get to see my unproduced work performed, and it does give the fans a little insight into the biz. In any case, I've never heard any complaints from the folks who attended.
Greg Weisman
OFF TO CHICAGO... ON A WING AND A PRAYER...


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dph writes...

Finishing up what I didn't get to write in Con Journal before the window was closed.

Dph's Monday's return trip/Almost didn't make it home

I ate breakfast with A Fan, again. I thought I had plenty because I had scheduled a pickup for about an hour after I ate breakfast. I pulled my bags out into the lobby when a guy asked if I was waiting for a shuttle bus. The answer was yes, and I caught it. It turned out that my shuttle bus time had been scheduled for an hour earlier pickup and if I had walked out the door any later, I would have been stuck. I arrived at LAX about 2 hours before my flight was scheduled to take off and by the time I made it through the lines, I barely had time to sit down before boarding for my flight began. I boarded the plane and slept most of the way towards Dallas/Fort Worth airport. When we arrived at the airport, we had a delay in unloading because of problems with another airplane. It ended up being a 1 hour delay. I played a quick version of the "Amazing Race" stopping by Wendy's to pick up food (I didn't have time for lunch at LAX) and proceeded to go to my terminal. Nobody was manning it which made me nervous. A few moments later somebody arrived and told me, thankfully, that my flight home to the Little Rock airport hadn't taken off so I was alright. I tried to call my brother to let him know about this, but for some unknown reason, I couldn't get a call out of that airport. Once I got on my flight and made it to Little Rock, the rest of my trip was uneventfull. I enjoyed myself.

Greg responds...

Glad you had a good time!

Response recorded on March 09, 2007

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dph writes...

My Sunday's Gathering Journal or "What the Heck Happenned to Time on Sunday?"

Looking at the con schedule, things kinda make sense.

Sunday morning came early. I ate breakfast at the hotel with A Fan. We had to wait an hour to get our food and by the time we got through most of the way through eating, it was time for the 1st panel of the day - Gargoyles: The Comic Book. I asked "When does Xanatos sleep?" and your response was he has competent assistants. My question wasn't about does Xanatos trust his assistants, but rather we see Xanatos awake during the daytime and we see Xanatos (and Owen) awake when the Gargoyles burst out of stone and turn to stone, leading me wonder does he sleep during the daytime or at night? Or is staying up with the Gargoyles just not the norm for him? Anyways, I left the gargoyles: comic book panel to head towards the online fan sites panel instead of the Gargoyles: Voice Acting Process panel, because I was working on remodeling the tgs website. No regrets with that decision, I learned that Voice Acting Process panel actually filled up. After that, I had some free time and I made my way to the Gargoyles: the Production Process panel. My eyes started feeling heavy and was struggling to stay awake after a few minutes in that panel. It wasn't the fault of the panelists, it was the fault of my body. I knew that if I didn't leave quickly I was goign to fall asleep during the panel so I headed towards my room to take a short nap, or so I thought. The mystery for me was how I ended up sleeping until A Fan woke me up to have the anti-banquet in our room, which started a few minutes after the Banquet was supposed to start. So I rushed out my room and I got to the banquest late. Luckily I was able to find a seat and people hadn't started eating yet. I enjoyed the food and the Guest Q&A afterforwards. Then I headed towards my room, trying to make sense out of how I ended up sleeping so long. A Fan went to the masquerade & dance and I stayed in the room. He came back after the mug-a-guest and helped me schedule a shuttle bus to take me to LAX so I wouldn't miss my flight. Then we discussed plans and set up for room service to call us Monday morning so we would have time for breakfast and I would have time to get ready to catch my shuttle bus.

Next Up: Monday's Trip home or Almost Didn't Make It

Greg responds...

Xanatos sleeps when he needs to. Just like he eats when he needs to, etc. Just because we don't show it on screen doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Response recorded on March 09, 2007

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dph writes...

Saturday's Gathering Journal

Apologizes for delays between posting of parts of my Gathering journal. [I am working on the mystery of Sunday's gathering journal or rather trying to put the pieces of what happenned that day together because I've been trying to work out that since I got back.]

I got up early and start writing the story of how I got here while waiting for A Fan to wake up. A Fan woke up, we talked, took showers, and headed downstairs to get breakfast. Thanks for A Fan's special deal, we got a free breakfast buffet, which I enjoyed. I ordered Cold Rasberry Tea (I'm from Arkansas so I prefer tea both sweat and cold.) I got to chat with A Fan, getting to know him more. Afterwards, I went back to my hotel room to look at the schedule and decided to go to Radio Play auditions to have some fun, not expecting to be chosen. Unknown to you, Greg Weisman, there was a Bnai Mitzuah (Hebrew translation: Children of Commandment) going on next door and Siryn had to get on to us a few times to be quiet out of respect for the group next door. Afterwards, I enjoyed my free time. I saw the con chair and stopped to thank her for for her work, recognizing the amount of work going into the Gathering. Then I sorta migrated to the Gargoyles Development Process Panel after following Greg Weisman's pleasant but brief unexpected presence in the Gargoyles Physiology, Psychology, & Society panel. After the Gargoyles Development PRocess panel finished/Writing Panel started, I left to get signature on my gargoyles dvds. I got a signature and went to lunch. Once I finished lunch, I hung out, waiting for the Radio Play. I was not disappointed. The voice for Demona was great and once I learned it was CrzyDemona doing it, it made sense. I liked the actor playing Hudson. Connecting the voice of Lexington with the face came as a shock. I envisioned the actor being younger. Keith David was spectular. After the radio play, I hung out while A Fan was gathering people to go to a restaurant. When we got to the restaurant, we changed our mind and ended up eating at an Italian place. After I ate supper, I headed back to my hotel room to deposit leftovers in the fridge. My brother called me so I called him back and we talked for about 30 minutes. Then I wandered around, eventually meeting up with Gorebash. I thanked him for the work on Ask Greg, citing my understanding of what he's gone through, based on what I've gone through so far in working on a database system for the tgs website. Then I went to my hotel room to do more writing on this journal. A Fan arrved, saying thecon suite was overfull from mug-a-guest and he had left. We chatted for a while and he went to sleep. I decided to do Tigris Euphrates a favor and changed her listed on credits to the proper one on some tgs pages. Time for Saturday night bed or is it Sunday morning?

To be continued with "What the Heck Happenned to Time on Sunday?"

Greg responds...

Yeah, what did happen to time on Sunday? I mean in general. That day always seems to just fly by.

Response recorded on February 14, 2007

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Christine Morgan writes...

Hi, Greg!

Here's my Gathering 2006 Report! Which, since it weighs in at almost nine thousand words, I'm submitting via link: http://www.eskimo.com/~vecna/gathering_06_text.html

Otherwise, Ask Greg might pop like a balloon and I'd hate to be responsible for that! But if you really want me to, just say so!

Greg responds...

I want you to post it here!

(Next time we open the posting function.)

Response recorded on February 08, 2007

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Revel writes...

June 23
Woke up late, but there was nothing that morning I was in a rush to get to. Trip to the food court and back, I checked out to see if there were any bids on the art and took a walk through of the auction items. I did a little sketching for BrooklynX and greeted a few guest as they came and went.
Got to talking to Nikki about next year and she was more than happy to show off the brochures she had brought. She definitely had done a good job all weekend pimping Pigeon Forge to anyone who was interested. I certainly am excited to head that way next year.
The Radio play was the Mirror and it was great to have Keith David at the helm. He's as much fun to watch as he is to listen to. Crispin's Scottish I think had a bit too much of a pirate twist to it, but made the girls swoon and everyone else laugh.
Dinner was Hotdog on a stick because I love corndogs and never get to have them anymore. Though as I was putting mustard on my plate I had a little girl call me weird for putting a little mustard on my French fries as well…. Me, weird?… nah.
While we waited for Blue Mug we were hanging out in Aaron and Mara's room again and Nikki decided to put on an anime. It was a really bad hentai with all the bad things you can imagine including no story plot. Was funny though.
We knew getting to the consuite early was important, but it was a lot smaller than I imagined. Yes we were loud, that many people it's impossible not to be. But we had fun while it lasted. Greg's a robot, Thom says Lex is still horny, Crispin and Thom were bad, and Keith sang and told stories. Eventually we got kicked out, but not in a graceful way. This is where the hotel staff really balked. We have had other hotels be very accommodating, why, because we are paying guest. But this staff, more than just one was very rude. Should have given them the finger.
Moving on.
After they told us we couldn't go to the convention rooms or hang out in the Foyer a small group went to the bar, I got a Jack and Coke. It was mostly just small talk going about. After it closed we hung outside for a bit but eventually, once again, we were kicked out of that as well. This time by some wedding rehearsal guest. Who does wedding rehearsal at 1am, honestly?
After getting told to leave that many times bed was in order.

June 24
Being that it was now Sunday several of the food court establishments were not open yet when we got up to eat, but the hot sandwich place was, was really good too.
I caught the tail end of the comic panel and stuck around to take pictures. I said hello to Hedgecock, whether you like his art or not, I thought it was important to at least show him some respect.
I did attend the Voice actors panel, because I love to hear their stories and what people will ask. I have no idea why I decided to stand in the corner, not like I was on security detail, but it did give me a good view of the room, sorry if it made anyone uncomfortable.
Morgan Sheppard was a lot of fun to hear, and hearing all their stories on their favorite and least favorite moments in the biz was very interesting. Thom was late, he went for food. I ragged him a bit, but Thom is great like that, you can play with him like just another guest.
Once again during the signing I hung back and took pictures. GregX and I chatted a bit about how the con was going and general chit chat. We had mentioned how neither of us had seen Steve Blum yet when he walked up. Got to shake his hand and say hello but had to usher him to the W.I.T.C.H. panel that had already started.
I had a few things that Spacie wanted signed and she was in her own panel, a Hellsing DVD for Crispin to sign and a Big O poster for Steve Blum. The signing was running long with so many guest in a little room I had to point it out to Greg Weisman.
Aaron, Gside, and I went up to the con suite to try and see the other music videos that were not shown, but there was no VCR to play them on, that was rather disappointing, but I did snag a few pieces of pizza.
Just for fun I then dropped in on the Drawing Erotica panel. Mara and Kyt lead this one well. Not sure if anyone learned anything but was a lot of fun and I think everyone else would agree.
Spacie dressed nice for Banquet and I'll have to admit after seeing Tony in his sharp suit, I felt like a slob. Nevertheless the food was good and we had several good conversations with Patrick Archibald about direct to DVDs, story boards, and his current projects.
After a second helping and listening to the guest and a few questions we readied for Masquerade. To be honest I thought me as Brode just didn't work. At least as Dracon I had a fairly similar body type. Brode is more bulky, but I did my best effort at a cheap bastardized eastern Euro/Russian accent. (I improved so lines on walk out and had to do it again because the music was too loud.) I plan to have a better costume next year. And I'm not afraid to agree that Tony has no shame, he would probably say so. There were not many costumes, but the ones there were, were great.
Afterwards I took pics and looked forward to continuing the Blue mug we were kicked out of the night before. It was a more intimate setting this time, more space and less people, plus Michael Reeves joined us. I was honored and pleased to hear that Greg W not only liked this one particular piece of my art that he loved the concept of a bearded Thailog that Greg X and I came up with just in random conversations. Eventually we reached a good stopping point and crashed.

June 25
Got up as early as my fatigue would let me. Cons burn you out. Anyhow, I wanted to make Greg's Time travel panel and I only missed the first few minutes. Quantum physics can give you a headache, but is fun nevertheless.
I then made it to my only other panel, which I felt really under qualified for, Digital Rendering. I do well, but I'm the first to admit I'm still just starting, especially when compared to people like Steph, Karine, and Kyt, all three who are professional artist. Anyhow, the panel was a blast, Steph is great to watch in action, very energetic. She has a photoshop brush named WEEE!!!
Closing Ceremonies was very quick, almost too quick, but it was over. It was a good con and assuming nothing goes horribly wrong we'll be at the next one.
Dinner was in the Food court again and the hang out was Aaron and Mara's room. We had lots of visitors though. Leo stopped by, Allaine said goodbye, was nice to talk to him more this year.
WE had to crash a little early, and loaded the van that night so as to just get up and run in the morning. We had a long way to go.

June 26
Had a slight irritation with the desk clerk at check out. She didn't even ask if we were splitting the room payment and just put the WHOLE THING on my card. Then she didn't know how to refund it. That killed a half hour. Very annoying.
I took first leg and got us all the way to El Paso. That was about 12 hours of driving, but add two hours for time zones. We could have stopped but after eating at a Chili's we felt pretty refreshed and pressed on all the way to San Antonio. Which was fine, saved money. We got in SA at about 6 in the morning and just crashed.

June 27
Slept a lot, hung out in San Antonio and read my comic again and most of the Anthology. We left the next day for Houston and thus returned to normal working life

Ending Gathering 2006.
See you in Tennessee!

Greg responds...

I'll be there!!!!

Response recorded on February 06, 2007

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Revel writes...

Here we go...

June 20
I was able to get Tuesday off work but Spacie had to work, so that was one thing right there that slowed things down. Much like Vegas the previous year we had reserved a rental van to take us to the con and back. Weekly rates are very good and split among 5 or more people makes for very affordable travel, especially with drivers who rotate and don't need major stops.
We finally left Houston just before 7 and made it to San Antonio around 10... of course getting stopped for speeding didn't help. No biggy, just got a warning. Dinner was MacDonalds.

June 21
We retrieved the van around noon, a Chrysler Town & Country that I didn't think was as nice as the Dodge we had last year, but small details. Brunch was sandwiches and we ate on the road.
This was different for me because in the past I have been the iron driver that does most of the wheel time. Aaron did more than his fair share, taking us from San Antonio to El Paso, about 600 miles and I took us to Tucson, about eight hundred and sixty some odd miles all together for the first day. We had purposely planned to stop in Tucson for the night even though it was an extra expense because we didn't want to get to the hotel too early. It was a Days Inn, was not too shabby. Aaron once again took the wheel and took us all the way to Valencia, about an 8 hour drive.
The scenery was not very interesting except the Wind Farms, I found those interesting. Mostly just a lot of dirt and some mountains. We did stop at the Patton museum and I got some pictures. Was also our first taste of California fuel prices. Oooouch. Anyhow, The afternoon traffic starts even as far as 50 miles outside LA proper and that slowed us down. I started to get worried that we had missed our exit and would have to take I-10 all the way to I-5. Thankfully no. We bypassed most of the bad stuff and being of the Bill and Ted generation made fun of the signs that said San Dimas, no we didn't find a Circle K there.
I was surprised to find that Valencia was quite a ways from down town Los Angeles, but given how spread out things are I suppose that is to be expected. Greg Weisman described Valencia as a "Mall town." Good word choice, the place, at least around the hotel was all shops and restaurants. In fact as we were sitting at the light to turn into the parking area, a fairly large group of garg fans were on their way to the BJ's.
We parked, checked in and went across the street to find the crowd. Though it took a while to sit, it was not bad, and the food was good. I split a pizza with Silver and Spacie. Silver is always fun to talk to.
The rest of the evening consisted of getting the bags into the room and hanging out till we got sleepy.

June 22
My first objective was food followed by finding reg. And where the art show was setting up. We found it worth the short walk to always head to the food court because the price was better and the food was not bad, plus a bit of variety. After breakfast I picked up my art and was pleased that Cindy (Eden) loved the picture of her gargoyle and Spacie's garg so much that she bought it. I was proud of that piece. I was a little embarrassed to see that I brought more adult art than anyone.
The first panel I was on was Sketching 101. Though more than qualified to be up front I still felt a little small being up there with talents such as Kyt, Karine, Steph, and Mara. But I added where needed and let them lead. I hope people enjoyed our antics as well as learned something.
I had thought I was on other panels as well, but they must have been canceled or moved since my only other one was on Monday. I enjoyed Crispin's voice panel, it was interesting to see even a bit of how dubbing is done and the software he had was very cool. Afterwards I did audition, but didn't do was well as I had in the past, that and it being a small cast meant I got bumped. Oh well, maybe next time.
Spent an hour in the dealer's room at the Anthology signing plus I picked up a copy of the comic. The nearest comic shop here is about 20 some odd miles away.
Opening ceremonies took a bit different turn this year with the music videos being shown. I always miss the videos because they are usually in the con suite and I rarely make it up there. All the videos were good, I particularly liked the one that used the song Hemorrhage(In my Hands) by Fuel. I always enjoy annual count the first timers show of hands, quite a few this time around, plus I heard there were lots of walk ins all weekend. I always enjoy the Bad Guys pitch, because there is no where else you can see it and only once a year.
Food was at the food court again, but it was good and when we got back we caught the tail end of the MiSTings. We end back in Aaron and Mara's room and had great conversations with Marty about the comic, the business, the economics of it, politics, hell lots of stuff. It was great to get a chance to really talk to him and thank him for his persistence in bringing the comic to life.
Bed was at about 1am.

Greg responds...

I never just get warnings. How do you manage that?

Response recorded on February 06, 2007

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Chameleongirl writes...

Well, I didn't make to the LA Gathering :(
I got home from G'05 to find that management had cut my hours at work, and by October I was unemployed.

So yeah, I had just enough money to keep alive and there was no chance of getting to LA this year. I did pre-register though, so at least I made my contribution.

To make things even better, I got a bad cold that lasted the four days of the Con, then suddenly got better. The Universe conspires against me! :D

Everyone who went this year seems to have had a great time, so congrats to Jen & Co for pulling off yet another wonderful Gathering.

Kyt informs me that I have been registered for next year at Pigeon Forge, so now I *have* to come. Time to go mug old ladies for spare change I think ;D

I'm going to leave you with something I left out of my Montreal Gathering journal (my first Gathering):

Thurday night, when everyone was arriving at the hotel, Kelly and I were waiting for an elevator to go up to our room.
A bunch of people got off and Kelly introduced me to one in particular. You.
I said Hi and I think I shook your hand. We got in the elvator and headed up.
It took me two stories to realise what had just happend, I turned to Kelly and went "That was *THE* Greg!"
I felt like and idiot :D

Here's hoping I'm less of a fool next year :)

Greg responds...

By now, we're old friends though, right?

Response recorded on February 02, 2007

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Karine "Kanthara" Charlebois writes...

Gathering Con Journal, as written on Wednesday, June 28:
Made it back last night. A lot of the convention is a blur for me. I didn't take any notes, and forgot my camera. I debated on getting a disposable camera when some of us stopped at a Rite-Aid on the way to Jen's on Thursday, but decided against it. In this digital age, it's easy to get the photos for other people who were at the con, and I didn't want to have to scan, crop, and resize photos.

Thursday, got picked up by Greg X and Patrick. We swung by Kyt's and then made our way to Jen's. Steph and Seth were already there, and we packed up all the vehicles with everything that was needed, and made our way to the hotel. We claimed our rooms, unpacked the cars, made a new run for supplies, copies and the like, and went back to the hotel. We were eventually joined by the rest of the staff -- the Morgans, Cindy, Laurean, Carol -- and Greg Weisman. We assembled the packets for the attendees. We went out for dinner, joined by several more people. We slept.

Friday, we assembled the art show panels, and then we had the first staff breakfast (french toast). Those of us who had art put it up in the art show after breakfast. I was hosting a couple of panels first thing, so Kyt, Steph and myself made our way to the proper room and gave our Sketching 101 class. Kyt and I continued with the Character design class. Then, there was running around, I forget the rest of the afternoon until Opening Ceremonies. We saw the music videos then. They were good. It was a good idea to show them at Opening Ceremonies -- that way it made it easy to get a lot of votes. Dinner consisted of ordered pizza in our room. Yay!

Saturday, Staff breakfast of tasteless scrambled eggs. Then, I helped a bit with Registration, ran around with errands, sat on Mug-a-Guests (Jymn Magon sat with us as we waited for Dave Schwartz who was stuck in traffic; Jymn was awesome), had a portfolio review with Frank Paur, who gave me very positive and helpful comments, gave out business cards, discussed the animation industry, sat in the art show and drew a little, sold a print, ran around helping out, watched the Radio Play, went out for dinner, came back for Blue Mug, was exhausted and decided to go to bed, updated LJ, talked with Jen and Steph in bed until way too fackin' late.

Sunday, Staff breakfast again. Breakfast tortilla of DOOM it was so huge, so I ate only half. Sat on Comic book panel, made faces at Steph. Sat on another portfolio review Mug-a-Guest with Bob Kline, who finally remembered me from 2001. Commented especially on my wonderful posing. (Squeeee! It was what he'd told me to work on back in 2001...) Did the auction with Laurean while Patrick was secretary. Kicked auction ass. Bought a sword. Got prettied up for banquet, turned heads. Corsets will do that. Took charge of directing banquet, had good food, was generally happy with friends. Then, helped Cindy with costume, got together with volunteers to wrangle the audience and participants for the masquerade, was very grateful for volunteers (Shaun, Dercesthai and Asatira, you guys rock), got the guests in to judge, decided to allow some of the people there for the wedding next door in just to watch the Masquerade. Saw all the costumes; lots of good work. Guests went out to deliberate over a few drinks. Danced for a bit, then wondered where the heck the guests had gone to after a long while, and sent someone to collect them from the con suite. Got them back, prizes were given out, well deserved. Went back upstairs to help Cindy out of her costume. Came back downstairs in the mood to party, found party had died down. Blue Mug had been interrupted the night before, so it was picked up again. Sang with Jen's daughter Stephanie. Saw her and her mom do routine from Three Amigos. Got out of there, eventually came back with Kyt, Steph and Jen, because we were staff and we had to make sure at least one of us was there until closing of the room. Jen laid the smack down and expulsed the two wedding people when it was clear they were drunk and disruptive. Steph and I zombied back to the room. I fell asleep quickly.

Monday came too early. Got up, had staff breakfast of Eggs Benedict, went to host panels (Fan to Pro, Iron Artist, Digital Colouring); got my remaining art and won bid delivered to me after the last panel. Sat on short and sweet Closing Ceremonies. Cleaned up our room for Dead Dog party with Kyt, Susan and Stephanie. Met up with the remaining crew and went to late lunch, shared appetizers with Kyt, Allaine and a newbie, Carrie. Sampled a White Pear Sangria, is yummy. Got back to hotel, had dead dog party, made drinks for people, addicted Tim to Sortilège, a maple/canadian whisky liqueur, and drew him art of Vivienne. Greg W showed us the raw footage from the 2004 Gathering. Was surprised at how well presented and well spoken I was in my interview. People bounced on the bed. Lots of laughing and drinking. People trickled out slowly, some to go home, some to catch a plane, some to go to bed. When everyone was gone, Jen, Steph and I chatted for a bit in bed, talking about our friends, about each other, and about how we hate the physical distance between all of us.

Tuesday, I woke up at 7 on the nose, no alarm or anything. I took a shower, got ready, said my "do I have to go?" goodbyes to Jen and Steph, met Patrick in the lobby, he drove me to the airport. Got checked in electronically, dropped my bags quickly enough, got through security rather easily, had an early lunch, boarded the plane, slept a bit on the plane, watched Eight Below, read most of my Anthology, landed, went through customs, picked up luggage, had to go through Immigration to show my sword and be allowed to take it home. Adam and Matthieu had been going in circles in the car waiting for me. Ran to the car, got whistled at by the security person because Adam was stopped where he wasn't allowed, dumped everything in the car and went home. Snuggled with my little boy, put him in his PJs and put him to bed finally. Snuggled with husband, happy to be home.

Greg responds...

No one can say the Gathering staff doesn't keep busy. Glad you had fun too!

Response recorded on February 02, 2007


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