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RIPOSTES 2006-08 (Aug)

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Reusch writes...

Con Journal

Ten years after the start of the Amzing animated series "Gargolyes", I was sitting at my friend Topmans house when I suddenly thought of "Gargoyles". I asked Topman if he had ever seen the show and he replied that he didn't. This was an absolute shame of course and after assuring him that this was and amazing show he proceeded to download the episodes. After procurring the first five episodes Topman soon discovered that I had indeed been right. This was one, if not the best animated series ever made. All of this led him to search the web for fan websites and it was then that he stumbled upon the 8th Annual gathering of the gargoyles. It was to take place in our home of Montreal, Quebec so we of course had to attend. We had no excuse not to. We quickly filled out the registration sheets taking the whole package, including the awesome t-shirt, and cut a check. Soon we were able to revel at the sight of our names on the registered people list, thingy.

We were so excited about it that we could not contain our excietment as August 6th quickly approached. All we had to do was sit back and wait.WRONG! Topman had the brilliant idea of making a canon costume. And ,well, Topman being Topman had to pick one of the most difficult characters to make a costume for. "Thailog". Now don't get me wrong "Thailog" is an awesome character, but making a costume of him. Not my idea of easy. And I am really lazy. But of course I had to help Topman because he's my best friend. We started a good deal in advanced because we knew it would take us forever, but we are both huge procrastinators so... Needless to say we only Really started working the week of the con. It took awhile, but after lots of glue, velcro and sadly enough staples(?) we managed to put together what I thought was an awesome costume. I however have vowed to never attempt feet on another costume again. Throughout this whole costume ordeal we watched "Gargoyles", which made it a little harder to work on the costume, but hey, we got to see some "Gargoyles".

Well I guess that after all of this rambling I can get started on my actual Con journal. I just thought that it would be a good idea to explain the interesting events that came befor the big day.

Friday
The notion of waking up in the morning has always disgusted me, but after having worked on a costume for the last week and getting about an average of five hours of sleep each night, the idea of waking up is just horrendous. However I forced myself out of my sleeping bag, (I had crashed at Topmans the night before due to working on the costume into the wee hours of the morning) so that I couldprepare myself for a weekend of what I was sure would be non-stop fun.(I turned out to be under-estimating the con). So Topman and I piled into the car and his dad drove us downtown. We would have taken the bus, but I needed to find out how to get to the delta hotel because I had to drive there the next day so that we would have a place to store Topmans costume. The wings I made were not the most sturdy of wings.(That's what I used the staples for). When we arrived we were a few hours early so we decided to go to Tim Hortons where we had a sweet, sweet french vanilla(Our favorite drink). After that we decided to go see if anything had started. We had like a half hour befor anything started. When we got there we discovered that the registration desk was open and we shyly approached, but just stood there. we waited untill one of the staff asked us if we were pre-registered. we replied yes and gave our names. We in return received our package which included an amazing name tag with this years mascot, "Riel", one of the gathering t-shirts and a program.

Now that we were at the con and had our name tags and everything it was time to mingle. At least that would have been the normal thing to do. Topman and I decided to take refuge at one of the empty tables and browse our program so that we could decide what we want to do. While doing this Sarah came around recruiting people for the clan olympics. Topman and I were a little apprehensive about joining in seeing as we were not to keen for anything involving athletics, or trivia so we put our names down as a maybe. Later on we thought, "ah what the hell. We're here to have fun lets do it!". So we told Sarah and she said we had to be in teams of four. Well seeing as Topman and I did not know anyone we had no team so Sarah said that she would find us ones. After this Topman and i went to put on our t-shirts.(We were practically the only ones wearing them the first day. we felt kind of wierd, but it was a cool shirt.) When we cam back Sarah had found us a team. A couple of loners like us named Nez and david. They turned out to be an amazing couple of people. Topman and I couldn't have asked for a better clan. The only problem was we had to think of a clan name. Well after having chatted for a good while with Nez and David, we discovered that Nez was fromTexas, but was right on the border of Mexico. With that in our minds we came up with the name "Mexanadiens". It would have been more appropriate to be called the "texanadiens", but well I guess we were a little to excited to think straight. Then came the start of our ongoing joke. When Abe asked our name we told him, but then he asked for a team motto. we had no idea that we were suppose to have a motto so we all groaned. We then decided that we were too lazy to come up with another motto so a big groan in unison was the start of a beautiful thing. After a talking for awhile we went our seperate ways. Nez and David went to a live drawing thing and Topman and I went to the "con Virgin.
It was here that we met Sapphire and Chameleon girl. Two very awesome peole. we spent a better part of an hour drawing random things on the white board and just talking. It was really fun. Topman and I got to really act like ourselves here. That would be acting like complete morons. Ah, good times. After that we went to the voice acting seminar with Greg.
We arrived and found that most of the seats were taken so we sat all the way in the back. Greg then started giving tips on voice acting and it was really interesting. The only bad thing was that Keith david was not there yet due to him finishing shooting a film. No problem, he would be there later. Soon greg started asking for volunteers. I was not too keen on the idea seeing as I always make an ass out of myself when I do something like that. I was however trying to get Topman to go up because hes a really ggod actor and has been an extra in a few movies and has done a few commercials. He was not too keen on the idea. In the middle of all this the disney film crew arrived to shoot some stuff for the Gargoyles dvd. Thank God. It took long enough for them to put the show on dvd. Anyways the last skit that greg was doing required five people and only two put their hands up. I finnaly managed to persuade Topman to do it and he went up. we however still did not have enough people so I volunteered. I knew I would regret it. I ended up with the part of Hudson.(My least favorite character.) I soon discovered that I could not wink with my voice.*Wink*. However it was really fun. I got some applause for being a girl with the part of Hudson.
Well after that was done Topman and I didn't really want to visit the other seminars(seeing as the radio play conflicted with the clan olympics) so we just hung around the tables. Soon Nez and David joined us and we decided to go to the underground mall to get some food. We decided to get some McDonalds. This was the biggest mistake ever. the service was terrible. I wanted the salad with the crispy chicken. The woman there asked me twice about the chicken so I felt confident that they would get it right. Mistake number two. It took about twenty minutes, after she told me that it would be ten, and they got the chicken wrong. At this point I just wanted to eat something seeing as we had like fifteen minutes before the opening ceremonies. During this twenty minutes they burned two batches of fries, messed up Davids double big mac and forgot to give me the salad dressing and a fork. I had to ask for them and at that point they still did not have davids food ready. I had to eat quickly so I went to sit down. Unfourtunatly, they don't know how to cut chicken at this McDonalds so I had to go ask for a knife. And when I did this I was given a fork. Let's just say that this was not the most pleasent experience that I've ever had. We arrived just in time for the opening ceremonies which were awesome. Karine welcomed us all and Greg played us a tape from people who could not attend the convention.(Even though Keith David was on the tape.) It was really awesome. Greg then proceeded to trick us all by stopping mid-sentence and announcing, "Keith David everyone". we all turned to see... Nothing. Now that was cruel, but it was really cool to see what a great sense of humour Greg has. He then played us the pitch for gargoyles and a few other shows he had been working on. They were pretty awesome. Then while one of the staff was talking the clan olympics took over. We were not expecting this and topman and I were terrefied that we would have to make fools of ourselves in front of everyone. It turned out to be really cool. David had to put on a shirt full of holes so that Nez could fill it with plastic balls that Topman and I handed to her. It was really fun. And at the end it turned out that we were not in last place. This was exciting news. After that we concluded the opening ceremonies.
Topman and I then decided to attend the Mystery Gargoyles Theater 3000. We didn't know what this was, but after an episode we really got into it. It was also here that we met Annie and Katherine. They were so cool. we had a blast saying random coments abouot the episode we were watching. Topman and I were however kicked out early so that they could prepare for the next portion of the clan olympics.
Within ten minutes "shot in the dark" had started. We were the third to last group to go and the game ended up being throwing three koosh balls at targets that had point values and power ups on it. At the end we ended up being in third place and first in that event. Not bad at all. After finding out these results Topman and I went home to sleep and prepare for the big day.

Saturday
Once again we had to wake up Early, but this time I had to drive there. This was nerve-racking, seeing as I had never had to drive downtown, but we ended up at the hotel with no trouble at all. The first event of the day was the clan olympics "trivia torture". It turned out to be the best torture ever... Seeing as David was the one to be tortured. Their were three forms of torture, 1-toothpaste and O.J. 2-getting your hair dyed or 3-chocolate dipped in blue cheese dressing. The only thing that I learned from this trivia was that none of us could write really fast. Thankfully we were not the first ones to get out so we still ended up in third.
After that we went to the weapons demonstartion, which I found to be really entertaining. nothing beats some good old fashioned sword fighting. This laster for about an hour. we had to leave early for some more Clan olympics.
The fourth event turned out to be really hard pictionary. I was volunteered by the rest of my clan to be the one to draw. I love how we did not choose the artist of the group which was nez. Well we ended up being first in this event after having passed on a few of the things like new and improved. How the hall am I suppose to draw that. Well whatever we were doing well and there was only one more event to go.
The last thing we attended befor the banquet was the radio play. It turned out that it had a cast of like thirty people. The episode turned out to be journey. All the actors were great. I especially liked the person who got to play Elisa's cat Cagney. Brilliant stuff. They all got a rousing applaud at the end and now we had time to kill befor the banquet.
We ended up in Nez and Davids hotel room decorating our box for the clan olympics scavenger hunt the next day. It turns out that Nez and david had gone to the dollar store and bought random stuff like balloons and road sign stickers. So we finished decorating the box with crazy little sayings that corresponded to the road sign stickers. Topman and I then left for the banquet. Unfourtunatly Nez and david were not attending.
At the banquet Topman and I were back at square one, sitting alone at a table. Flanker then came and saved us by joining out tables. he was a really cool guy and we had alot of fun talking to him about random stuff. Then Annie and Katherine joined us. Flanker then got Sarah to join us and brenda decided to have pity on us and joined us too. We know had a full table,(Still leaving a spot open for either Greg or Keith David). It turned out to be an awesome table. Even though we did not get Greg or Keith. Sigh. Well it was still an awesome table. When the food came we had a blast making fun of it. the best was the vegetables that came with the main meal. They were cut in the wierdest shapes. We figured that one of them was cut in the shape of Quebec. Whether or not this was intentional we have no idea, but it was hilarious. I even took a picture of it. The food was not bad, but we hated the stuffing inside the quail. Oh well. Apparently everyone had fun watching my expression as I ate the fruit desert. It was so gross. Apparently the bavarian cake was fantastic, but I was stuck with the gross fruit thing. Lets just say there are probably some really good photos of my facial expressions. Finnaly the big moment arrived. Keith David. he walked into the room to great applause. It was now time for the Q & A.
Greg started it off to give Keith time to eat something. I didn't really have any questions so I just sat back and listened. Then Keith got into it. He was a great guy and it was really intersting to listen to him. There was one problem though. the room next to us was doing Karaoke. It sonded like a dying giraffe. Topman and I were having serious problems trying to hold in our laughter. I felt so bad that I was laughing while Keith was talking, but man were they bad. Sadly Topman and I had to leave so that we could get his costume cause he needed time to change into it and put on the body paint. This was too bad cause we missed the part where Keith said "will somebody shoot that horse", referring of course to the people attempting, and failing, to sing "My heart will go on".
Topman went to put on his costume in the mens room. When he came out about an hour later, I had to help him put on the fragile wings and those stupid feet. Never again.
When the masquerade started I got myself a seat on the side so I could take pictures. There were a lot of amazing costumes. But what I really liked was the cosplay done by sapphire, chameleon gril and some guy who I don't know his name. Sorry guy. They performed the opening monologue to Gargoyles using bristol board and a lot of crazy things. It was fantastic. Then they started the parade of costumes. They were all really good. I will not try to name them all cause I know that I will leave some people out. All I can say is I loved Jade griffins costume with the rip off skirt like Elisa's in "eye of the beholder". I got a lot of great pics so I will always have these great memories. Once the awards were given out all the people who were dressed up went outside for people to take some pictures. I got a lot of really cool ones. After all of this awesomness, it was time for Karaoke.
Topman had to go take off the costume so I was wondering around listening to the other people sing. Thankfully the costume held up till the end of the masquerade. After that the feet started to self-destruct. At the Karoke Keith David serenaded us with a wonderful song. He was so good. It was also really sweet how he had his kid up there with him. That was so nice. There was also this guy you did a rendition of "Blame Canada" with different words so that it was "Blame Gargoyles". When Topman returned we talked to Annie and Katherine for a bit, but then we were really tired so we went home to try and get some sleep.

Sunday
Sunday started off with the last event of the clan olympics. It turned out that Topman and I were really bad at this. We were always the last to get the things that were on the list. The only thing I can say is that our box was, I think, the best one there. Nobody else had a sticker that said 80 into the official groaning emoticon.(Look at it sideways) We all had this written on our hands that day. It didn't help us, but we had our Groan powers unite by putting all our fists together and groaning. I have to say I had a really great time with the clan olympics.
After the event was over we decided to show Nez one of the great things about Canada, Tim Hortons. She was a little skeptical, but she soon learned the error of her skeptcism. We also met up with a bunch of other con goers and took over a corner of the Tim Hortons. It was really awesome.
After our delicious lunch Topman and I went to check out the artwork. We were so jealous of all the people who could draw better then us. The drawings were really amazing. Topman and I then each bought some Gargoyles trading cards. These included the pop up ones. Those are really cool. I currently have them all sitting on my window sill. I am looking at them right now as I type this. Man they are cool. Anyways back to the con. We then each bought a copy of the Phoenix gate anthology. We also got this side by most of the authors. I got a lot of neat little notes from them. It's a great little momento. And from what I've read so far I'm really loving it, so great work you guys.
Now it was time for the mug-s-guest with Keith David. He was a really open guy and he told us a lot about what he felt about the show and other things like what cologne he wears. It was really cool to just listen to him talking. he has such an awesome voice. I believe Gorbash said it best in his con journal, "He could read the phone book and we would all be hanging on his every word". Unfourtunatly Keith had to go eat something befor the closing ceremonies so that was over.
The closing ceremonies were so sad. I didn't want it to end. There were a lot of thank you's said to all the people who made this amazing event possible and then Chris went over stuff about the 2005 convention in Las vegas. This was really sad cause I'm pretty sure I won't be able to make it. Oh well ther's always the one after that. We also found out the winners for the clan olympics. We came in third tied with some other clan who's name escapes me at the moment. oops. After all the talking Keith David was signing autographs and I got him to sign my Program. He was so nice. he asked me how I got my nickname and posed with me for a really cool photo. That was so awesome. I must of shown everyone I know that photo. I can't believe that I got to meet Keith David. This con was the most fun I hav ever had. I hope that it keeps going for a really long time and I hope that Disney see's what an impact this show has made on a lot of people. Well the only thing left now was La Rode tomorrow.

Monday
When we finally left the hotel to go to La Ronde I was so excited. I hadn't been there in a few years so the fact that I was going there again with a bunch of really cool people was really exciting. When we got on the metro Sapphire led us in reciting the opening monologue. It was so funny. I wish I could know what was going on in the other passengers head. they must have thought we were all crazy, but it was worth it. When we got to La Ronde we split up and the group I was in went to the cobra. The line didn't look to long, but they only had one cart running on the track so it was really lonk. Topman,Chyna Rose, and I passed the time by singing songs from Rent. Once again I'm sure people thought we were nuts. We then decided that just befor the drop on the cobra we would scream out "Gargoyles on dvd December 7th". We were all suppose to do it in unison, but the rest of the gang could not hear us, but it was cool none the less. we had a great time on all the rides and it was just so much fun to be there with this great people. It was a sad time when we had to leave, but there will be a next time. Of that I am sure. Topman and I wished all the other con goers on the metro a safe journey home and told them that we hoped we would see each other in the near future. for now it's just e-mail and chat rooms. Oh well I guess thats good enough.

well I want to thank everyone who took the time to read this lengthy con journal. I hope you enjoyed it and I apologise for any spelling and grammer mistakes. I'm doing this really last miute. As I said at the beginning I'm a really big fan of procrastination. I also apologies for missing anything important. so much awesome stuff took place that my brain is swamped with fond memories.
Hopefully I will see all you cool people at a future con.
Ciao, Reusch
GARGOYLES RULE!!!

Greg responds...

Glad you had a good time. Hope to see you at another Gathering soon.

Response recorded on August 14, 2006


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