Shore Leave Part 1

This past weekend was Shore Leave! A fun, fan run sci-fi con in Baltimore County. The guest list had John Barrowman, Jamie Murray, Jesse Rath, Tony Curran, Daniel Davis, David Nykl, and Rekha Sharma.

John Barrowman was AMAZING!!! I hope to do a more detailed post later but he was hilarious, sassy, sexy, and heartfelt. The relationship between Jaime, Jesse, and Tony was clear and made them so much fun. When they were presented with their Shore Leave bunnies, Jesse looked at Jaime and said “I wanted Kirk. Trade?” and they swapped bunnies on stage. It was very funny. John said the bunny would be in good company with Easter kitty who shows up in a lot of his photos. The Defiance trio said they may make a background appearance in Defiance if they get a 4^th season.

I think that’s my favorite thing about a lot of the guests at Shore Leave: most of them really appreciate their fans. They know without us, they don’t get to live the dream. 

I think my most memorable moment was when I was walking past Rekha’s autograph area and saw her. She’s very slim and about eye level with my throat. The first words out of my mouth were “You’re so tiny.” I genuinely think she’s smaller than she was on Battlestar but she made a comment about the camera adding 10 pounds. I said that seeing them on screen, they also appear bigger than life.

The average American woman is 5’4 and many Indian woman are smaller than that. Celebrities are still people at the end of the day and subject to the same rules as the rest of us. Actresses are more likely to be slim because the business says so but they also follow the same height rules. The average American man is 5’9, my height. Seeing our heroes on screen in these worlds we escape to, playing characters we can only dream about being, we forget that they’re just people with a cooler job. Ms. Sharma was very nice

As far as spending goes, I spent more than I should have, as always but not on what I usually do. My normal big splurge has been clothes and jewelry. This weekend I couldn’t seem to say no to books. More on that later.

It was Boyfriend’s first Shore Leave. He had a lot of fun and enjoyed staying long enough to hear David Nykl. He sounds very interesting and I would love to watch Stargate if they ever put it on streaming.

A Festival and a Shopfession

MAGFest was last weekend. As I predicted, I was bad with my shopping freeze. How bad you ask?

-Sparkly purple dice for upcoming Pathfinder campaign + two 6 sided dice        $14

-Super Art Fight program (autographed by several featured artists at con)                     $15

-Portal Tee with Cave Johnson’s rant about lemons                       $20

-Plush puppy cow (created by a Super Art Fight artist)     $10

-Mystery box (I kept the hairbow and candy)                                 $5

-Several charms (made by Super Art Fight artist)               $24

-‘Don’t Panic’ hand towel                 $14

-Fabric bracelets                                 $2

That equals a grand total of $104 spent at this con. I kept getting dragged into the dealer’s room where it’s hard not to spend money. I got a great birthday gift idea for The Boy but I spent way too much time around temptation. On the plus side, most of what I spent was cash instead of charging it so no interest. I was also putting money toward local artisans instead of some massive corporation.

I have no guilt over any of my Super Art Fight Artisan purchases. It’s one of my favorite things about some of these cons and all the stuff I’ve seen has been great. I’ve even turned some of my friends into big fans. Most of the folks I saw were small entrepreneurs making some really great niche products like the customized nerd towels. I have a birthday coming up in about a month and no major cons again until April so I should do better in February.

It was interesting to speak to one of the artists having just finished New Domesticity. She just quit her ‘real’ job to go full time at her crocheted coolness. It sounded like her husband still had the standard gig but she’s in such demand that she won’t need him nearly as much as some of the moms in Matchar’s book. 

Craftigurumi is doing so well that when I inquired about a custom order she said she probably wouldn’t get to it until March. Her impressive work ethic combined with her unique material and consistent con presence should keep her business booming for quite a while. She said she crochets at about 3 feet per hour for the scarves and she’s doing it for about 8 hours a day. I recommended 4 podcasts I absolutely love since she listens to TV a lot.

The con itself was great. Most of my friends were there and I got to see all of them for at least a little bit. I played my favorite arcade game, saved the earth from aliens with The Boy, checked out some indie games, and sat in on a panel about Girls in Geekdom. This con is always fun but this year it was especially great. Being with friends really just made the con for me.

I did a Con Bingo list of all the crazy costumes I saw. I was able to check off:

-A furry

-A brony

-A punny costume (Teenage Mutant Ninja Bros)

-The Doctor (4, 6, 7, 11)

-A member of the Disney Princess franchise (4 total)

-Guy with a Japanese body pillow

-Person on stilts (full Groot costume)

-At least 3 Deadpools or one with a twist (2 with twists, 2 women, and at least 2 standard)

-A pregnant woman who worked her pregnancy into the costume (Season 1 Khalessi)

-Unnecessarily slutty costume (Charmander)

-Waldo & Carmen San Diego (separate counts but bonus points if they’re together)

-A crazy expensive screen accurate costume (Master Chief)

-Gender bent costume (Princess Peach followed by Ash from Pokemon)

I missed:

-Man in anime girl outfit

-Hot guy in shirtless costume to show off abs

I found a few different cartoons that I might have to adjust and make an actual Con Bingo for my friends and I for Awesome Con in a few months.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Conventions

Not in the generic sense of Vegas but the geeky sci-fi, comic, gaming, music, and fandom conventions. You get to meet people with common interests, indie writers/producers/artists/ etc., see crazy costumes, create crazy costumes, meet celebrities from your favorite shows, and more. 

I always find amazing garb at cons and see some really interesting furries. I think it’s one of the few places they feel safe. I’ve discovered some really cool writers, sat in on some really cool panels, and met some really awesome people. I definitely love me some cons.

Dating at Warp Speed

I’ve been binging on the episodes of GeekLove on YouTube. One episode that I really liked was the Mama’s Boy: Ladies Man who learned that he should really move out of his parent’s place. Talk about learning a valuable lesson.

Sci-Fi Speed Dating was at the DC comic convention back in April. Because my friends and I were the last session of the day so we hung around talking to the people running it. We all ended up going to dinner and having a great time. Ryan, the guy who runs it, is absolutely hilarious.

My BFF really wanted to go and I went along as moral support. I’d done it before at a non-nerd MeetUp group and it hadn’t gone well. The only time speed dating had gone well for me before was when I was the only girl. As cool as Ryan and his people are, that still held true in April.

I got no love, no numbers. I have too strong a personality for 3 minute doses IMHO. Ryan said there was one girl at New York Comic Con who went to every single session and got no numbers until the very last session on the very last day when she got more numbers than everyone.

I’m glad it worked for most people on the web show. I did not especially enjoy getting no love while 2 of my friends got numbers so I’m calling it on speed dating for me. Since Boy Toy and I got together a week after that disastrous session, that’s probably a good thing.

I did get one set of good digits out of it. I saw a girl in a book dress, told her it was awesome, and got a new friend. We hang out on the regular and she’ll be joining a group of us for Baltimore Comic Con. We saw the Rocky Horror Show last week. I think this may work out better than most of my past relationships.

Music: Cathose Tragedy by Voltaire

Shore Leave: Saul Rubinek & Eddie McClintock Part 2

Sunday right after Brent Spiner was the final talk for the duo. Unlike the first talk, they started and ended together. There was a lot of overlap so only one story got retold (Rubinek on Star Trek). Saul decided to open by talking about some of what goes into filming a TV show.

Most shows film outside L. A. proper for budgetary reasons. Directing a pilot is an incredibly sought after job because you set the tone and establish a pattern for an entire series. Every future director must follow what you did. Somewhere in here Eddie’s wife called. He had to pick up and tell her that he was on stage and would call her later.

I’m not sure how this quote came to be but it must me shared: Eddie: “I’m gonna do some interpretive dance to In A Gadda Da Vida.” Saul: “Can I leave?” The fans started asking questions and Eddie insisted on running into the audience and using his mic rather than the one set up in the crowd. It was great.

When asked about his favorite Pete and Myka episode, McClintock said it was the body swap episode and the Noir episode. He enjoyed switching from Noir speak back to regular speak for the entire episode. For body swap they acted each scene as their characters and then the other would come in and follow that. Both were really good exercises as an actor.

The telenovela episode they’re filming right now is entirely in Spanish. They have to learn what their lines mean in English so they can give it a proper inflection and emphasis in Spanish. They also must speak it like they’re fluent. The director is fluent so he catches when it doesn’t sound believable.

McClintock’s favorite artifact isn’t actually seen but is captured in a line of witty dialogue: “I once put on Abe Lincoln’s hat and had the irresistible urge to free Mrs. Frederick.” When someone had a Saul question, he pouted and either went back onstage or catcalled form the audience. When Rubinek retells the story about Star Trek and gets to the part where the little person tried to off himself, Eddie asked “Was it the script?” McClintock also pretended to snore.

Since Spiner and Rubinek are reunited in season 4 of Warehouse 13, they threw in several lines of dialogue for the fans from their episode of TNG. I now must watch that episode of TNG and that season of Warehouse close together.

McClintock got to tell the story of how he got the role of Pete since it was already cast by the time Rubinek auditioned. He was stressed since he hadn’t had an abundance of success and his wife had just had their second kid. For Warehouse they called in 6 Petes and 6 Mykas. By lunch half were eliminated which is incredibly hard for an actor to come thisclose and then be cut. McClintock is getting stressed and starts ranting and freaking out while they’re all sitting and waiting while the other actors do the scene.

Joanne pulls him in and tells him to breathe and just talk it out. They go in to read together next and it’s a scene from the pilot. Joanne turns to him and butchers the line calling him a “showbot.” McClintock starts doing the robot and ends with a little Michael Jackson move and a ‘hoo-hoo.’ They finish the scene and as they’re walking out Joanne punches Eddie in the arm and says “Dude!” The casting people just look at them and go “That’s the show.” From an actor’s worst fear of butchering a line came on of the best roles in her career. She still calls him dude BTW. McClintock just got a text from her saying “I love you dude.”

The next fan question was from a man announcing the name of the 12^th Doctor. You could hear the room gasp from the hallway outside. McClintock announced himself before the real new Doctor. Rubinek talked a little about being an actor. It’s what his daughter is looking into doing and “The biggest talent you can have is to get up once you’ve been kicked down.” He likes acting for TV since “some of the best work is on TV: the best comedies, the best dramas, the best stories.” He and Eddie are looking into doing a show with Brent Spiner.

At the end the staff of Shore Leave came out to give them their bunnies. Rubinek’s had a Data uniform on so he finally collected Data. McClintock promised to do his best to work the bunny into one of the final 2 episodes of the series. Now that is love for your fans.

I think what I liked so much about these guys is that they’re not high on themselves. Once I heard Shatner talking I suspected he didn’t really care about the fans, he thought he was above us. We were there to adore and be amused by him. I never got that sense from Saul or Eddie. They wanted us to have the best experience with them as possible. They appreciated us and related to us. They enjoyed us which is part of what made them enjoyable.

Music: Something I Need by OneRepublic

Shore Leave: Saul Rubinek & Eddie McClintock Part 1

I saved the best for last: Warehouse 13’s Eddie McClintock and Saul Rubinek. They spoke on Saturday and Sunday. This is Saturday. I’m splitting this into two entries because these guys were very interesting.

They did a combo of talking and questions. I liked how they asked “Do you want to hear us talk about X?” The answer was always yes, like how he got the role of Artie. They were having trouble casting him and Rubinek said why during his audition: Artie wasn’t on the page yet. Rubinek said he saw Artie having a love/hate relationship with the Warehouse and had a bit of darkness rather than a Willy Wonka sort of character they had on the page. He made sure he liked the role because he didn’t want to be stuck playing a character he didn’t like. Saul said it was the most fun role of his career and the best job he’s had.

Warehouse 13 has recently been canceled and they’re filming the final episodes. When asked why, Rubinek replied “Cause you liked it.” It was part of SyFy’s rebrand and reach a wider audience. It had the best numbers in the history of the network but then they moved a family show to 10 PM. They also only counted live viewers and ignored streaming and on-demand numbers.

Another well known role for Rubinek was the villain who wanted to collect Lt. Commander Data in TNG. Saul was in town to visit a friend who directing a few episodes. The person who was supposed to be the villain was a little person who attempted suicide (he eventually succeeded in taking his own life within a year). Rubinek got the call at 2:30 AM (much to his host’s chagrin) to replace him.

The villain was seriously evil and the bigwigs wanted Saul to tone it down. He said that he’d love to talk to them about it but they refused to meet him or call him. Saul didn’t want to tone it down, Spiner didn’t want him to tone it down, his director friend didn’t want him to tone it down. Rubinek wanted to make enough effort to talk it out before he could say “fuck ‘em.” The character was very memorable but neither he nor his director friend were asked back.

Somewhere in here Eddie stuck his head in and started booing and blowing really loud raspberries. It was funny and shows the relationship they had on the show. When he was told he could bring props home from the show, he said no. He wanted his memory of the show to be about family. What he really wants are accurate TV ratings.

Other memorable things he’s stared in was SG1. I’ve never seen it but I remember him being really happy it was extended into 2 episodes rather than condensed. He was also offered a role on the Outer Limits in a Holocaust episode. He was offered it as his friend was talking to him about turning it down. Rubinek’s parents were Polish Jews who hid for 2 years. The writer’s parents were in a camp. He liked how the episode was handled.

Around when Saul was talking about his favorite Claudia moment Eddie joined him. Rubinek met the actress for Claudia and she is 1 year younger than his daughter. He was really impressed with how professional she is and thinks of her more as an equal than a daughter. One of his favorite bloopers were with “this monkey over here” pointing at Eddie and “I don’t make mistakes.”

When you make mistakes during filming the crew laughs with you for the first 3 takes. By take 9 it’s like laughing in church. Eddie said sometimes he just has to go “dead puppies, dead puppies, dead puppies.” They don’t have too many on-set pranks save for Eddie being really gassy.

Eddie was very funny. One of their big advertisers was Cialis. Someone once told him “Your audience doesn’t have trouble getting boners; they have trouble getting chicks.” He’d been at Shore Leave before and said that he took his bunny mascot and snuck it into one of the holiday episodes. Both agree that they like they’re leaving us wanting more rather than dragging on to the point where we’re waiting for them to just finish it out. I think the show wasn’t there yet but I could see shark jumping happening in season 6 or 7.

One of the unused artifacts they talked about using was Hitler’s microphone. It would have captivated, and probably brainwashed, its audience. I think the writers and producers were a little scared to touch it but given the right treatment, it could have been a fantastic episode. They also had 3 different types of acting: Acting (normal acting), Schmacting (green light acting), and facting (lots of exposition). You see all in every episode since you need background on the artifact, the characters have to interact, and the artifact has to do stuff.

Saul talked about how they didn’t want Warehouse to be a procedural drama. That was Eddie’s cue to use his glasses to do the CSI: Miami thing. He even did the “Yeah.” Eddie talked about characterizing Pete. He wanted to make Pete similar to himself so Pete liked comic books and he’s sober (Eddie’s 13 years). He also wanted to honor the military by making Pete a former Navy Seal. McClintock was a wrestler, the high school jock, so hearing from an astrophysicist “I love your work” is a huge compliment.

A woman asked about actors who turn their nose up at sci-fi. Neither Rubinek nor McClintock knew anyone who did this. Rubinek said “Actors want to work” and had some stats to back it up. 90% of SAG members make less than $5,000 a year acting, 9% make less than 50,000 leaving 1% making good money off this. “You don’t choose acting; it chooses you.”

This lead to Eddie talking about the cancelation and the creation of the show. Warehouse had to up the humor and down the violence to get more women to watch and it worked. Women actually started bringing their husbands and boyfriends to the show. I’m doing it once I get Boy Toy caught up on a few other nerd staples. Saul said “We have to make them want what we can give them. They will always make crap if it continues to sell.” Eddie chimed in with “Snooki, Kim Kardashian, Bieber. Hey, who are we to judge?”

Once Saul left, Eddie said “We’re gonna tell dick jokes and talk about poop for the next 30 minutes.” He did better than that and talked about how inclusive Warehouse 13 is. Women outnumber men, there are a variety of races and they added a gay character who became a regular. “I wanted Pete to be the coolest straight man I’ve never met.” He briefly touched on the issues in Russia and how he loved the acceptance of Warehouse 13 and the fan community.

McClintock loves fan run cons like Shore Leave. Suits are what canceled his show and this way he gets to meet more people. “I feel like the mayor of Warehouse 13.” That’s why he paid us a tribute by sneaking Gene Rodenbunny into an episode. He talked about his favorite fan encounter. It was a veteran from Afghanistan and Iraq who had done 3 tours total. He stepped on IEDs in both places mangling his legs and earning him 2 Purple Hearts. He told Eddie, “I spent 3 years in the hospital. Your show kept me alive.” He gave McClintock one of his purple hearts. “I can’t accept this.” “Take it. I’ve got 2.”

A woman was getting a text from her absent friend to ask Eddie something. He starts rambling while waiting “I’m Irish. It gets cold. I’m a grower, not a shower. Oh, that’s not the question. These are not the droids you’re looking for. Move along.” He then goes up to the phone and says “Hi Barbara” on the video the woman is filming.

One of the final questions was about any roles he feels he’s not getting proper consideration for. “African American porn actor. I would like to do a great, impactful war film.” He’s looking into possibly doing a movie with Kevin Sorbo but “it won’t be as good as Sharknado.”

I was leaving that as I saw him and asked him for a picture. He was so nice. I think he really does enjoy the fans and seems like a guy I’d love to be friends with. Boy Toy and I could totally double date with McClintock and his wife. This is entry #1 because there are still more fun stories to come…

Music: I Will Wait by Mumford & Sons