Now, when Zoie Palmer ask to do something... her fans will come running. No Lie.
I had to ponder a bit before deciding to go or not. I gave in.
But after watching THIS... it was a no brainer
It was REALLY a mingle event. I was only there for one thing and really, one thing only - cast of Lost Girl. But I ended up speaking to a few celebrities and stole someone's kid (read on!).
Once the even started, I saw Rick Howland and his wife. Sitting with them was a woman and a little girl. I like kids, so, I spoke to her. Her name was Eloise. She is very cute and adorable and very social. Her mother was fine with us chatting while keeping an eye on her. We (Eloise and myself) decided to go for a walk and look for daddy.
"Ok, where's daddy? Do you see daddy?"
Oh yes, we did... guess who's her daddy?
This guy...
Say what? I just took Paul Amos' kid?! ok... moving on...
I finally got around to speak to Amanda Brugel...
Me: Amanda, free red wine at a charity event? Are you sure it sends the right message?
Amanda: *ponders* well
Me: Ok, so we drink for the children!
Amanda: Exactly!
Then it's off to MORE pictures!
Bo's mom... Inga Cadrenel
Vanessa Matsui
Mr. Rick Howland himself got an Aussie-Sandwich! I wonder who feels luckier?
Shannon Beckner
and of course, Zoie Palmer...
It was a very small and intimate event. Yes, you did brush shoulders with celebrity and got to chat with them about anything and everything and steal people's kids.
So, after all was said and done... Amanda Brugel announced that we were able to raise $21000 for Holland Bloorview. That is an amazing number. She was emotional and very happy about the event (and maybe drunk too!).
Sex After Kids... really, it's not a topic that I have ANY experience about. But apparently, someone thought it would be a brilliant idea to make it into a movie. Who is this brilliant man? Some guy name Jeremy Lalonde.
Who's Jeremy? He's a bubbly, lovable guy whose previous work was The Untitled Work of Paul Shepard. Wait... scratch that... He's a brilliant director/producer who realizes his friends has a huge following and knows they will do as they are command. The man sure knows his audience.
So, part of the funding for the movie was through indiegogo.com. It was a huge success and some of the perks included a private movie screening at The Royal in Toronto on January 10, 2013. That's where I come in.
There were a few of us (actually, it turned out to be a bunch of Faes) who met a little bit earlier at a cafe down the street. It was more of a small reunion for those who have previously met at other Lost Girl events. I found out that some fans were from out of town, LITERALLY. There was fans from Boston, Alabama and Texas.
Click here if you just want to skip ahead to the review but you'll miss out on pictures!
Door finally opened and must not forget the poster!
The excitement just followed... then the stars arrived!
Yea, she got lucky and got a Vexon (Vex and Dyson) sandwich...
Well, I got MY photo with Kris and Paul!
Then we were rushed off to our seats for the show!
I'll do my best to not spoil anything.
The concept of the movie is interesting. I would say even a touchy subject for some people. The movie looks at how people's sex life changes after a baby come into their lives; for couples (gay and straight) and single parent. What made the movie worth while was the comedy. There were never a dull moments in the film. I found the film quite enjoyable and I don't think I've watch any other movie that made me laugh so much. I think my cheeks hurt after watching it from the laughing.
It's hard to pinpoint what I love; the comedy, the actors, the dialogue or maybe all of the above. At first, most of us really went to watch the movie because we were Lost Girl fans wanted to support our favourite actors. Who does love Zoie Palmer in her British accent?? Really, that, itself, is worth watching. Or a totally naked Kris Holden-Ried? But as the movie started, you began to love how the movie develops. Sure, a few of us were probably "Ok, show me Zoie and her accent!" but even when she's not on screen, the other actors were just as pleasing and funny.
After the movie was a short Q&A. Some questions included "How did you get the babies to work with you?" and "What they believe were the reason for a successful fundraising campaign?" and "Who's house and apartments were you filming at?" There were some interesting facts... The babies were natural actors! The houses did belong to the cast members.
We had a bit of an opportunity to mingle a bit more!
There was a small party at a pizzeria/pub down the street. Of course, I would never miss an opportunity to socialize with the stars. Here's an interesting fact... Canadians are SO DOWN TO EARTH. We are the fans but the most important thing is to respect the stars. I highly doubt you be able to go to Hollywood and hang out with those stars. But here, they're friendly and they're will to talk to you and talk about just daily life and there's a genuine "want to get to know you." Yes, they even remember my name. Yes, MY NAME! ;)
For example... Ennis Esmer remembers me from the previous wrap up party... I got excited and said "Yes! Ennis is my friend!" The conversation was quite funny. It went something like this:
Me: Oh, you remember me?
Ennis: Yes, I remember you from the wrap up party.
Me: Really? Cool, Ennis is my friend!
Ennis: Wait... just an acquaintance. Let's not jump to the next level just yet.
I thought that was funny and just laughed out loud.
Oh yes, I did grab a second opportunity to take ANOTHER photo with Zoie Palmer. I can't help it. I love her!
We chatted up with Paul and Kris. The girl, Carissa, on the right, forever known has #HalfNakedGirlWithZoiePalmer was carded by Kris AND got Paul to buy her a drink.
Myself on the other hand had Kris offer me a scotch... which I honestly told him, "if I drank that, I wouldn't be able to drive." So, I grabbed the rum and coke off his other hand! Thank you, Kris!
And what else did we do? Carissa and I were able to grab Kris' ass on a few occasions. I think he liked it ;)
I did have an interesting conversation with Kris. He spoke about how he enjoys working these long hours then taking a hiatus, like athletes. I asked him "I saw Untitled Works of Paul Shepard, why do you have to play such assholes?"
His answer?
"I love playing the bad guy." Well, he does certainly play them well. I'm not going to complain...
And did you know, he's a Leo? As am I! Probably a reason why I love Kris!
The evening wrapped out at about 1am. Luckily, I worked 11am the next day and didn't have to worry about going to work sleepy. But of course, I couldn't help but remember the fantastic evening. I left with a big smile that I don't think I have been able to wipe off my face.
If you get an opportunity, go and watch the film! They will be appearing at film festivals.
Do you remember the first episode of Lost Girl? Do you remember the bar? Do you remember the Fae day? The La Shoshain?
Well, the infaemous @faenonymous decided to celebrate it at the REAL Dal Riata. Yes, the real one. No, I am not kidding. The Dal Riata is actually base on a REAL Irish pub.
I had just finished Dragon Age 2. It was $12. You can't complain about a $12 game!
To see what I said about Dragon Age Origin... click here.
Let's start with graphics again:
It was nice. I really liked the Sundermount because when you are up the mountain and look back down, you can actually SEE the village below. I think with graphics, while the big picture (the background, the houses etc) are nice, it is the smaller details that makes the graphics good. I had my mother asked "why are their face so dirty?"
"No mom... it's blood."
For me, music in Dragon Age 2 felt almost invisible. I couldn't hear the awesomely epicness like it did in DAO. The music is very subtle and somewhat disappointing. During fight scene, the music comes on but it missed the oomph that it had in DAO.
The story of DA2 is not that bad. Personally, I am slightly confused. You're able to import your save file. Since I sacrificed myself in DAO, the story somewhat continues on. So in Dragon Age 2, it really had NOTHING to do with the dark spawn, they show up a little in the game but it takes a more political route which I have no problems with. However, I am just not sure how it connects to DAO, just the fact that Hawke is a refugee from Ferelden.
I thought it was interesting how the game is done through Varric's story telling. What I do love is the small talks and characters. No one can replace Morrigan. She is likely one of my favourite evil good guy.
On a side tangent, Kate Mulgrew was in Toronto end of August for the Fan Expo. During Q & A, she saw a fan and screamed "Are you Flemeth?!" The fan responded that she was her daughter Morrigan. Mulgrew then proceeded to speak in Flemeth's voice
In DA2, the character bickering is still there. My favourite companion is Isabela. The conversation between her and Aveline and Merrill is hilarious. Of course, Isabela being Isabela, she makes some... interesting comments. At times, I had to stop and think "did Isabela just say THAT?" Yes, she did.
I like the new dialogue dial and gameplay. There was just one thing that annoyed me to no end. I felt like the graphics engineer and level designer got LAZY. A lot of the caves and dungeons were the SAME map, the only difference between cave 1 and cave 2 was the door that doesn't open.
To put it in simple turn, they created ONE dungeon. They used doors to differentiate cave 1 and cave 2 even though when you look at your mini-map, there is a path that you THINK you should be able to go to.
I would be in a new area and head to the cave, my first thought "hey, I've been here." I proceeded to where I should go and "why can't I get through?! Why won't this door open?" It is just some half-ass lazy game design.
I also enjoyed how they brought some characters back from DAO. Only Anders is playable but to see Alistair mope in the Hanged Man (I didn't make him King) is funny. But it felt like they decided to just throw in the DAO characters and went "look, people from the first game! Yes, this game is still in the same region."
There is 3 DLC content which I am sure would have made the game enjoyable. But no, I am not spending another $30 to play them. Imagine if you had pay $50 for the game and realized you need to pay another $30 for extra content? That just screams GREED.
I enjoyed playing it still. I mean I did pay $12 for it. If I had paid anymore, I might be screaming as a horrible game.
It's another year of the Fan Expo! I am going to just call it the Unofficial Fae Con :P because 1) I wasn't planning to go this year even with Gillian Anderson (not a fan of X-Files... SORRY!), 2) it's $45 + $5 service charge (really? service charge?) and 3) I would only be interested in Kate Mulgrew, Captain Kathryn Janeway.
BUUUUTTT... lo and behold, they announced the cast of Lost Girl will be making a repeat appearance. Really? Fan Expo decided to repeat the awesomeness of Lost Girl from 2011? Ok, you win. I cannot say no to Lost Girl.
Let me split this blog into 3 sections, so if you want to skip my non-Lost Girl and swag rambling, feel free to click on "Lost Girl" and move onto the important part.
Lots of happening at Fan Expo like they do every year. So, I woke up early and drove down and what do I see on the highway? A police car... but not JUST any ordinary police car... It's...
A Chamberlain County Sheriff cop car? Where is Chamberlain County? It's definitely NOT in Canada since I've never heard people use "Sheriff" here. It must be a movie set car! And the tow truck did say something about Film Tow...
A little advice for you, if you plan to visit Toronto for the Fan Expo. Buy your ticket in advance and either have them mailed to you (there was an extra charge) or pick it up advanced! I had purchased my tickets a few weeks before (once Lost Girl was confirmed) and had picked it up at the advance booth earlier in the week. Why? See this:
This was the lineup for already purchased ticket. Now, there was a TOTALLY different line for buying tickets... this picture courtesy of @ri_docculus. Having said that though, the line up to get in was smooth. It moved along at a pace that it took only 15min to go through the snake line. Have to give credit to the Fan Expo organizer for quickness and organization. It could have been disaster like a few years ago. Here's another image from the top of the massive amount of people who had pre-purchased tickets.
And as a bonus picture, I saw Chainsaw Lollipop (the video game) line up...
As usual, there are LOTS of things to see... lots of vendors, previews and samples. If you collect comic books or action figure, this is the place to be since most vendors do have back issues or special editions. I didn't even bother looking at the stuff... I could spend hundreds of dollars trying to find Xena collectibles. As I said, LOTS of things to see... I guess this is the reason why they called this the Comic-Con North!
There's this...
and then Lego Hulk... just look at the size of that kid!!
And... DarthMaus?
And my favourite SHE-RA!!!!! Oh and the Batman guy...
And Back to the Future car!
Other notables that I seriously can't take all the pictures of includes: Sailor Moon, Star Wars Troopers, Star Trek, Princess Leia, Steampunk, Doctor Who, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Spartacus, Megaman, Portal (video game) and a host of other anime stuff.
End of the Fan Expo rambling! Now for some SWAAAAGS!
Another thing I love about going to Fan Expo is to see new things and to get freebies. Who doesn't love swag? No, please do not call the swag police (Rizzoli & Isles reference. lol)
There were plenty of things available. CTV were giving out t-shirts to promote their tv shows but I missed out on them. But I did pick up other stuff. A bag from EBGames (no picture, it's just a bag...), these "ROXX" thingies which reminds me of a lot of Pogs back in the days...
Then there's this Marvel spintop beans thing and a Michael Jackson Experience disco ball keychain and free itune movie/comic/music (1 time use) but I don't have an itune. I just wanted the card.
Of course, you can't forget the comic books (I only picked up 1 and a Lego one)
Also picked up 7 buttons for the main characters of Once Upon a Time
And I must toss in a game related stuff. Picked up an Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Assassin's Creed card for the voice actors to sign but I just wanted them cause I like the games and it's neat! lol
So, are you still with me? Or did you just skip everything above and just clicked on Lost Girl? I know it's long, I don't blame you.
And now, I present the most important and the reason to be Fan Expo...
At Hall G at 12 noon!
The Q&A officially started at 12 noon but I got there around 10:30am. 1) I'm over excited, 2) beat the crowd and 3) I want a better seat then I had last year! And I did meet up with Lost Girl tweeps!
@Faenonymous, Tim and Sue of @MindReel, @jorjafoxluvr, @Byflutterby, @QuickLookBusy, @mpleaf67, @NellyFFan, and I have to mention these 2
@smellycat1304 and @rocarangi for coming ALL the way from France to be here! I hope you gals had an awesome time!
I probably left out a few people... sorry!!
One thing the Lost Girl fan reminds me is the Xenaverse. The fans are just fantastic people and great people the be with. The cast themselves are just very humble, very friendly and faetastic people. I love Lost Girl for the show, the cast, the fans and the story. I am forever a Xenite and a Faefan!
Oh right... the actual Q&A
And the wonderful @thetelevixen moderating the panel
The cast of Lost Girl
Ksenia Solo and Anna Silk... Is Ksenia tweeting?
Rick Howland, KC Collins, Zoie Palmer and Kris Holden-Reid
They were asked about the triangle... soKmReIoSne mentioned a threesome...
We really doubled the number of people who came last year. I recall, Anna last year said she was surprised by the size of the crowd because the show was only in Canada at the time and that Lost Girl were at the Fan Expo in 2010 with a booth and asking people to watch it. Anna, your wish came true! Rick's comment from 2011 was "It's the number 2 show being downloaded online." Oh yes, he meant that.
But the success of the show has risen so much that that I'm sure we can do a Fae Con, even fan run and be successful... It's a work in progress. Just look at the crowd!
Back to the Q&A
Lots of things were said... but no secrets were given away. However, we were treated to Season 2 bloopers before the cast game out!
Courtesy of underwolrd6667
Rick also served water to Ksenia and Anna... oh Rick, the Trickster came out, didn't he?
KC Collins getting picked on but that's because he loves spooning with Kris Holden-Reid and with Zoie Palmer.
Zoie wants to have Lauren wear nothing but Labcoat...
Kris considers himself as the hunk of the show
Zoie being Zoie... making the perfect timing comments
Kris and his "French Canadian" accent
KC keeps digging himself into a deeper hole and the cast just jump on it
Ksenia living tweeting while in Q&A
I did ask a question... I was the 1st but due to time constraint, I can only ask ONE! I know I'm so greedy... So I asked a question in reference to this:
Hopefully I will get to ask other questions. They are good ones. Trust me! But it will be for another convention.
After the Q&A is OFF to the autographs! It was a long line up. It was great just chatting with random people and I did bump into someone that I didn't expect. He said he watches the show for Kenzi. Sure, Doug... SURE.
Also met Sam, the wonderful Kenzi look-a-like and performing the "Kicking it! I'm the wolfman!"
I totally missed filming it and I was going to do it. I can tell you Kris and Ksenia loved it so much... Ksenia wanted a picture with Sam! She titled Kenzi meets Kenzi
Apparently, some fans didn't get the chance for the up close. It is not really the cast fault. If they could, they WOULD sit through how ever many hours needed to meet everyone. It was due to time constraint for the next person to sign (seriously, what can be more awesome then Lost Girl?) I hope that those who missed the chance to meet the case were able to get the signed picture at least.
OH WAIT: Those who missed it... You MUST click this
So what happened when I got my stuff signed?
When it did get to my turn, Rick looked at me and said, "Hi JOANNE" like I did something wrong. A two questions into my mind, 1) why does he remember my name when he meets hundreds if not thousands of fans, 2) what did I do that made him remember me? Was it good? Bad? Nope either, he remembers me from season 2 finale viewing.
Kris remembered me as "the girl who had too many questions." lol
Ksenia, Zoie and Anna signed my photos and asked where they were from. One was from last Fan Expo and the other was from the pre-show taping. I just love Zoie and Anna. If I could, I'd take you home with me!
And of course, I can't forgot KC Collins, he asked how I was doing. I told him "ah... I'm alive?" and I think he laughed - still love his smile. I seriously don't know how to answer that question. I usually give unexpected answers...
The ONLY people missing was Paul and Emmanuelle. I know Paul is funny and Emmanuelle would fit right in! We may request Emmanuelle to do the "Dancing Morrigan." If these 2 were at the panel, I think the roof would have exploded from too much laughter.
So what did I get signed?
8x10 photo signed!
A a bunch of personal pictures! They're from either Fan Expo 2011 or from the Pre-Show taping.
So, let's make this Fae Con happen, give the account a follow. Yes, shameless self promotion. I know we filled out the room... and with hundreds more that couldn't attend. And trust me, if 2 girls would visit from France... just imagine how BUSY and INSANE it would be if it's just Lost Girl ONLY CON at an ideal date!
And for ALL the pictures at the Q&A and Autograph Session, click here. I have 50 photos up (that's not a lot) but if you have photo and want to share, let me know, we'll find a way to group all the pictures and have one ginormous Lost Girl album...
PS: Sorry, some photos aren't in their proper angle cause Blogger is stupid and decided to auto rotate them inappropriately.
PPS: Wow, that was long... hope you enjoyed it though!
UPDATE: adding new video from different angles
previous video links:
Courtesy of msckaren
