Hi my name is Becky, and I'll be your fan today.

Greetings, gentle readers. I went to DragonCon! There were splendid things there, like trout on grits. Black eyed peas. Pecan cookies. Whale sharks. Wil Wheaton (who had the best panel EVAH.) And James was there! Really, something or someone for everyone. Yes!

There was no James party/concert like there usually is at D*C though. Woe. But as it turned out, he did two mini-concerts. Of sorts. If you kinda squint. The first was at the Moonshot panel on Friday. He started out reading his notes, trying to convince us that the moon landing actually happened. Erm, were there secret groups of numbskulls attending D*C that thought it was all a hoax? I kinda doubt it. I think James sensed that he was preaching to the choir, so he finally asked who believed that we actually walked on the moon, and practically everyone raised their hands, so he tossed his notes and changed the subject. lol At that point they started playing clips from Moonshot (wherein James plays Buzz Aldrin) and he commented on them.

Watching a scene:




And his reaction to how he did in that scene. lol He thought he overacted it, was too emotional. But really, he wasn't.



But on to the special concert portion of the panel! He held up his iPad and played the Moonshoot track from the new GotR CD! Concert whoohoo! Sort of.



Someone uploaded it to YouTube. Yes, he accidentally started playing David Letterman. Hee.

And that brought the panel to an end. The track coordinator got an autograph (methinks she's a fan) and he was on his way. As he passed by where I was standing, I said "Hi James" and he turned and put his hand on my arm and asked how I was. And then he was off to sign more autos and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Saturday I decided to get an autograph. Because I can always use another one. Can never have too many. First of all, I gave him a Power Animal (old Charlie DeMars band) t-shirt to give to Sullivan. I tried to explain that I'd gotten it at the listening party to help pay for the studio, and had later found out that Sullivan had wanted one but didn't have the money. James said he wanted to keep it for himself. Poor Sullivan. Haha. James quickly saw reason and said he'd give it to him, and that Sullivan gets all of the cool t-shirts that fans give to him (James) anyway.

I decided to try something different, so I gave James a bunch of my photos that I've taken of him throughout the years, and asked him to pick out which one he wanted to sign. Basically I wanted to find out which was his favorite.


James: [looks through the photos] Damn, baby. Wow. [Selects one.] I like this one the best. Geezus. You take these?
Me: Yeah.
James: You're really good. I tell you that every time. Damn, you make me feel better about myself. [Wondering how I spell my name.] Is it "becc..."
Me: Uh, no. Becky.
James: OK. [Starts to sign.] So did you get any sleep last night?
Me: Yeah, I did.
James: My room is right by the elevator. I was being a totally good boy. I had two slices of pizza and a little melatonin, and I was trying to go to sleep and it was like the wild west, man. Like whoo hoo aaaahhh! (lol)
Me: You're at the Marriott, right?
James: Yeah.
Me: Yeah so am I. Totally noisy.
James: Wow. [Shakes his head.]
Me: But it's fun.
James: Yeah. It's memorable, that's for sure. [Haha, it's cray cray in that hotel at night. It's party central until 6:30am, I kid you not. But it's all good, part of the DragonCon experience.]
Me: [He signs "One Love" on the auto, which leads me to a question.] Can I ask you about "One Love, One Exception"? [The name of one of the tracks on GotR's new CD.]
James: Yeah, what's that about?
Me: Yeah.
James: It's about some people who were attacking him who were Rastafarian. And he argues, oh you think there's only one love, but you love drugs more than anything. You love marijuana. So there's one love, but there's one exception (makes smoking gesture.)
Me: When you say "he" you're talking about...
James: Charlie. That's his song. Yeah. For him and his lady, there's one love period, because all I need is you. To them [Rastafarians], they love the world, but only with drugs. And that's weak.
Me: Ah, well thank you!
James: Yeah, in the song it's [and he starts singing here] one love [makes like he's taking a drag, and sings] one exception.
Me: Ahhh. Thank you. Really good talking with you. [We shake hands.]
James: You too, sweetheart.


My own personal concert! There shall never be another like it. :-D



And the pic he chose to sign. It was actually the one I had chosen too, before I got the idea to let him choose:



In case you're curious, these are the other options for signage:



OK, that was fun. And who knew about that song? Anyway, you might have noticed that James wanted to know if my name is spelled with "becc". Which leads me to the exciting next installment of "Does James Know My Freaking Name?" After much deliberation, consultation with experts in the field, and video playback, I'd have to say no. He was asking how to spell Rebecca, which actually is my name, but only my dentist calls me that. James? Never. So he probably got it off my badge. Although, "Becky" was also printed on my badge right above my full name. So...who knows what the frilly heck happened there. But! It did inspire me to have a little fun with James next time I talked to him. Which was the next day.

*shifty look* The photo op. I walked up to our photo op, and he looks over. He's about to say hi, when I say, "Hi, nice to meet you." He bursts out laughing. Apologizing, even. Oh this is sweet. But I can't hang around for more because Froggy will kill me with his laser eyes of doom. So right after the pic is taken, I move on. But hey, there's always autographs to continue the fun...

I stand in the auto line later that day. Peg is writing down all our names this time on slips of paper that we're supposed to hand to James so he'll have an easier time of it. Oh, I'll make it easier for him. I'm all about helping James out. *shifty look part 2*


James: [He smiles. We shake hands.] Hey.
Me: [Big smile.] Hi my name is Becky, and I'll be your fan today.
James: [He headdesks in abject shame while laughing. You know that laugh. Yeah, that one.] I'm sorry, I turned to you and was like "Hello, how are you?" Totally canned, Becky. I'm sorry. Before my eyes even focused.
Me: Heeheeheehee! [I'm having too much fun. Srsly I am. But on to the auto!] Um, could you write something that you've never written on an autograph before?
James: OK.
Me: Whoa. [I thought for sure he'd be all, "Nope, gotta write One Love." lol He thinks for a few seconds and writes, "To Becky, I don't suck, James Marsters."]
James: [Smiling, hands me the autograph.] I don't know if it's worth it, Becky. But I never wrote that before.
Me: Well, you don't suck.
James: [Laughs and runs his hand through his hair.] Not now. Not today. [We shake hands.] It's been a great pleasure. You look great, by the way.
Me: [I had one last question I wanted to ask.] Do you think that you'll be doing any Ghost of the Robot gigs later this year?
James: Um, most likely not until next summer.
Me: [We have a little discussion back and forth about why.] OK, I get it. Thank you.
James: Yeah. See you, Becky.


Aw. So pleased with what he signed in the autograph. He's feeling better about himself now. Or at least on that day. :)

Here's what he signed. It's the place card for the Smallville panel, which I swiped because I could. That's the view of Atlanta from my hotel room, in the background there.



Hey, lookie what they're selling at the autograph table. James getting his Macbeth on. It's from a performance at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre, Seattle, 1996. I was wondering though, what would James sign on this pic? Certainly not "One Love". Hahahaha!



Signing autos. There's Gareth David-Lloyd, up to no good.



The poster behind Gareth. See? No good. ;-D




The Buffy panel!

I think this was the first time James and Eliza Dushku have seen each other since the Buffy days. And since then, Eliza has heard about James' song about her. (It's called Too Fast. And no, it's not about her mad sprinting skilz.) ::dun dun dun:: What will happen when they see each other? And why did the Whedontrack director come out and move Eliza's place card from next to James' card to the end of the table?! ::DUN DUN DUN:: The tension is thick. Well, there really isn't any tension. But if there were? It would be thick. ::nods::

First Eliza and Julie Benz come out. Then James comes out. Eliza is basically ignoring Julie who's trying to talk to her. Eliza goes over to James, arm outstretched. She's looking for a hug. James is surprised, yes he is. But he's game, he returns the hug. They smile and part. She didn't do this with anyone else. Just James.



Oh, this will be all right then. They've made nice. Eliza is hugging on him, and smiling. And she continues to smile at him throughout the panel. Even when she OH MY GOSH asks him straight up about his song. "I hear you wrote a song about my character." Without missing a beat, James says, "Maaaybeeee". LOL And they leave it at that. So the elephant in the room being glanced at, they continue on. It's a real fun panel. Lucky for us, it's on YouTube.

The whole panel. Being all panel-y.



Someday some brilliant person will invent a nic patch that doesn't itch. James will buy them, and all will be well with the world.



The Smallville panel was also great. Michael Rosenbaum, Sam Witwer and James are all hilarious people. And on the same panel? Wheee! I love that Carrie Fisher put sparkles on Sam's face (he plays a vampire on the US version of Being Human.) He allowed it because she's Carrie Freaking Fisher. :-D James had to leave early to go do photo ops. But he kissed Michael on the way out. Their bromance is a wonderful thing. But James did express concern about Michael's stubble. Shave closer next time, man.



You may have heard that James is doing the audio recordings for the Greyfriar books by Clay and Susan Griffith. So he had a reading on Sunday night. Here he's going through the chapter he's going to read, making notes, etc. He said he had never read in front of authors before, so he was kind of nervous.



James did real well. If he needed help with the pronunciation of names, he just looked over at the authors and they helped him. They did a Q&A afterward, which is when these pics were taken. Most of the questions were to the authors. I think Clay described the books as a cross between Buffy and Zorro? But James did talk a bit. Said he likes to have candles when he's recording in a studio to set the mood. But he's embarrassed to ask for them when working with professional types (when doing audio books.) Also, he was a bit concerned when he was first asked to do these recordings because one of the main characters is a female. But he's successfully done female voices for the Dresden series, so he can do it here too.



After the Q&A, they signed books.



I got mine signed.

James: Hi, I'm so happy you could come.
Me: Thanks, I'm happy to be here.
James: [Starts to sign the books.] I wasn't sure about reading the first chapter (it was up to him which chapter to read apparently) to you because it has so much exposition.
Me: Oh, but that was needed.
James: Yeah, it was a good decision. Sets up the excitement that happens next.
Me: [I point to the cover of one of the books.] Have you noticed how much you look like this guy? What's up with that? If there's a movie...[I point at James and nod.]
James: [Smiles] I'd totally love to do that. Yeah.
Me: [Books signed, we shake hands.] Nice talking with you.
James: Really nice talking with you too.


See?



I also talked with the authors. Both very nice and charming. I did mention to Susan about how James should be in the movies based on the books, if there are any. She LOVED that idea and would be totally on board with that. Well, it sounded like she had already had that same idea too. :-D She's actually a big Buffy fan and was thrilled when James was hired to do the audio, and thinks he'd be great as the lead character in the movies.

So the reading was over, and it was time to go. James was walking out, and I called his name. He turned around and I said that I wouldn't be seeing him for a long time. I hugged him and told him to take care of himself. He told me to take care of myself too.

So that's the end of my Jamesy type experiences. But here's what else I enjoyed at DragonCon. The Marriott Marquis, partying with the fishies at Aquarium, and the food. :-D Oh, and Wil Wheaton's panel on Second Sunday (aka Monday).



And that's it, peeps! Thanks for reading. And if you didn't read, thanks anyway for being continuously awesome. :-D

Edit: Please don't take any of these photos and post them elsewhere, thanks.