Not So Funny When It Happened

Update from my trip to Idaho this week!

( Tater Talks behind the cut.... )

So, I had to fly to Idaho to manage a meeting in Boise, I’ve never been to Idaho before, heard it was nice so figured, what the heck, I’ll take a couple days after the meeting to explore. I had absolutely no plans, no idea where I was going, or even what was out there, all I knew was I had a rental car, credit cards and cash. The two people I was working the meeting with were complete perplexed by the NO PLAN plan concept. They kept asking me, but don’t you want to know where you’re going, that you’re going to have a place to stay when you get there. I just shrugged and said, when I need a place to stay I’ll find it. I reminded them that if I could spend 6 weeks in New Zealand and Australia without a plan, then two days in Idaho should be a cake walk! (Yeah, I know, I came darn close to cursing myself with that statement, but thus far all has panned out)

So the road trip started as so many do now a days, with a stop at Wally World (otherwise known as Walmart). Bought a cheap cooler, sodas, waters, fruit, sandwich fixes, and oh yes, wine! I was one hour too early though, Donnie and Marie Osman were autographing their new album starting at 11:00 AM. The check out girl couldn’t believe I wouldn’t wait an hour to see them. She said, “My, I’ve been waiting all my life, what’s one hour for a chance like this!!!” I just smiled and said unfortunately I had other commitments I couldn’t break. The road, after all, was calling!

So I started out heading south east, cuz that’s the direction Walmart was in, so I just kept going that way. Got off the highway at the first “Scenic By Way” the “Thousand Springs Scenic Byway” that oddly enough, ran right by the Thousand Springs State Park. It’s an area where an underground river just bursts through a canyon wall in a gazillion places (okay, they say a thousand, I say a gazillion, not sure anyone has really counted, but you get the picture!) It was pretty cool. From there I got distracted by a sign for Balanced Rock and took a 17 mile detour to see, well, a balanced rock. Here’s what the brochure says about it. “World-Famous Balanced Rock, over 48 feet tall, weighing over 40 tons, balanced on a pedestal of only 17 x 36 inches! Nearby Balanced Rock Park is a lovely place for a picnic.” Okay, sounds WAY more impressive then it looked. I actually drove by it the first time without noticing it, figured out I missed it and double backed. And the lovely spot for a picnic, was one table under a shelter with a trash can. Don’t get me wrong, I made a sandwich and sat there in the silence of the near desert like conditions, it was neat, but world famous is pushing the envelope.

However the next stop Shoshone Falls MORE then lived up to the hype. It’s a giant waterfall like Niagra, not quite that large, but still VERY impressive. I got some cool photos with rainbows from the spray. There was also a lake as part of that park so I walked around for a while, got a little sunburn and some nice photos. Then it was off to Twin Falls waterfall, which was neat, but after Shoshone it paled in comparison. I drove through parts of Treasure Valley, Magic Valley, and the Snake River Valley on the first day and then headed up the Sawtooth Scenic Byway. My thought was I’d probably stop in Sun Valley for the night, but on the way there I drove through a ski community called Ketchum that was JUST SO CUTE! I saw a sign for a lodge with rooms for $79 a night with Jacuzzis and fire places. I initially drove by it and worried it might be the heart shaped bed type of joint, so I went on up to Sun Valley. Well, Sun Valley is a MAJOR destination hotel/lodge place with nothing else around it. I thought, that’s probably more money then I want to spend for the night, and Ketchum looked like a cute place to explore. SO, back down to Ketchum and the Tamarack Lodge. OMG I SOOOO scored! The place was really nice, no heart shaped beds or anything of the ilk. I got a HUGE room with king size bed, full size sofa, small dining table and a balcony all for $79 a night. They had an indoor pool & Jacuzzi, but by that time I just wanted food and bed. The lovely lady at the front desk recommended the Pioneer Saloon she said it was the locals favorite. I GUESS, I walked in and there wasn’t a seat to be had. I could’ve waited but I was hungry and tired, so I ended up next door at a place called Roosevelts (after the Elk, NOT the President, though the elk was named after the president when he was the secretary of the interior, so you figure it which came first….). They gave me a table in front of the fireplace that was lovely. Thankfully it was far enough away that I didn’t roast, but I had a perfect view of it.

Woke up this morning and wandered around the town a bit. It was DEAD quiet, but so lovely. Reminded me of a lot of the small towns in Colorado. Then I took off and finished driving the Sawtooth Scenic Byway, up over a high mountain pass that was still covered in snow (not the roads, but everything else). It was incredibly beautiful, I kept stopping to take pictures every chance I got. I ended up making a loop and coming back down the other side of the mountains on the “Peaks to Craters Scenic Byway” which was equally beautiful. 

My last stop was at the Craters of the Moon State Park which was REALLY cool, it’s a relatively recent volcano eruptions (well 200+ years ago) but it really does look like the surface of the moon or some other world. Though, it’s late when I get there (4:00 PM) so I am THRILLED to find out the park is open 24hrs. mostly for the small campground there, but still, no one is going to kick me out. So I’m exploring on the paths and out wandering around these barren flat lava fields when it starts to thunder and lightening up in the mountains above me. NOW, a smart person would have called it a day, but nope, not me. I just drove over to the next section of the park (less then ¼ mile away), where it wasn’t raining and ventured out again. Soon enough, rain would hit that area and I went scampering back to the car, lather, rinse, repeat this for 4 times until I had completed all the stops and was only slightly soaked! LOL

I debated going back to the Tamarak Lodge for the night, since it was sooo cool, but it was also 3 – 4 hours from the airport and since I have to fly out in the morning I thought it would be better to be a little closer, just in case. So I drove route 20 the 101 miles to Mountain Home. Now route 20 is a state road that is like many Midwest roads, long, flat, straight through a bunch of farm country, with the odd mountain pass thrown in occasionally just to keep you on your toes. So here I am, tucked into a generic Hampton Inn about 45 minutes south of the Boise airport. Funny thing, this is the most expensive hotel I’ve stayed in for my entire trip, INCLUDING the hotel in downtown Boise! Who would’ve guessed.

Things I noticed on this trip:

1. Baby cows everywhere and OMG are they just the most ridiculously cute things EVER!
2. Our National Park System ROCKS!!!! The Sawtooth National Forest is amazing and the little pull-outs and signs, and picnic areas, and rest rooms, etc. etc. Simply wonderful!!!! I can really get behind my tax dollars being used for something like this!
3. The Ford Focus I’m driving tells you your miles per gallon. At one point on the open road on Route 20 I got it up to 40.2 miles per gallon. If that’s true, it’s amazing! Not a bad little car actually.
4. Sorry to my international friends, but WOW, sometimes America is just the coolest place on the planet. I know, I know, there are a lot of problems here, but the beauty of the land and the open friendly spirit of the majority of the people you meet is just amazing.

Okay, it’s about bed time for me. Hopefully I’ll get photos uploaded soon! 

No actors/stories/gatecon pics today, so if that's what you were hoping for you can stop reading now.

I went sight seeing today on one of those hope on/hope off buses. I find them really convenient when I'm traveling for a basic overview of a city I haven't been to before.

Not going to go into all the details but WOW is Stanley Park GORGEOUS, I could spend days in there, but today was particularly amazing.

Today there were gale force winds - 90 kph or roughly 50 mph winds. The winds on English Bay were blowing huge white caps on the waters, but even inland (well just a little) at the rose garden the winds were still whipping.  The winds were stripping petals off roses and whirling them through the air like some kind of mad ticker tape/multi-colored confetti parade. It was AMAZING all the colors being whipped around and the wind pulling the scent from the roses and perfuming the air with its beauty, TRULY a stunning moment to behold. A memory I will keep with me forever. - thank you Vancouver!

DAMN look at that, it's midnight again, time for me to stop poeticising the day and go to bed. (poeticising.... is that even a word? well, ya know what I mean!)

Traveling home tomorrow, leave the hotel around 9:30 AM and won't get back to my home until 2:30 AM eastern time. 14 hours from the west coast to home seems a bit absurd, but it is what it is.

Current Mood: tired

The Auction on Saturday night was off the wall MADNESS! Complete lunacy and it raised a boatload of cash for the Make a Wish foundation. Early unofficial estimates put the sum raised around $14K GO GATECON FOLKS!

I will make sure this cut works because it's going to be crazy pic spaming

( The phrase "For the wee Baybeees" will never be the same! )

Current Mood: accomplished

Colin, Corin, John DeLancie, Vanessa Angel, Jay, Dan Payne

Someone asked John about Legend and he said it was hard work, but good. It was 13 eps. 10 years ago and people still remember it. Michael Greenburg was the producer and he did a great job on it. Jay interjected to say Michael was a good friend of his and he still considered Legend some of his finest work so John should feel very proud.

Next question was also for John, how was it working with his own son on Voyager and was he the first one the casting people thought of. No he wasn’t the first one the casting people thought of, there were others. John said it wasn’t particularly fun or easy working with his son because as an actor you have to be somewhat selfish and make sure you take what you need to make a scene. He found himself being too empathetic with his own son so he thought it probably wasn’t his best work.

 Someone asked the panel what are you geeky about:

Jay: Motorcross, Car Racing
Dan Payne: I’m a nerd, geeky about everything, hockey (he’d just come in from playing a game) and his baby son
Colin: Old films, old B/Ws and silent films. He’ll visit some of the older actors just to talk with them and learn about film history through their eyes. (OKAY, that is just TOOOO incredibly sweet to be geeky)


Vanessa: Okay, this is going to sound girlie, but I am very geeky about shoes. And I’m working on my own clothing designs now, so I can spend HOURS in a fabric store just fussing over all the fabrics


Corin: Funny, I’m geeky over women’s shoes as well and the fabrics at Victoria Secrets. No, seriously, books, I’m geeky about actual books, not ebooks, good ol’ books, something about them
DeLancie: Sailing, did a Hawaii trip a while back and currently planning a longer trip to the south seas (OKAY, again, NOT GEEKY, WAY too cool to be geeky!)

 Asked how do you avoid getting pigeon holed in your careers?

DeLancie: I didn’t avoid it
Vanessa: It’s hard, at first I only got asked to read for serious roles, then I was on Weird Science and I started getting all these comedy request, and then I did Sci-Fi with Corin, a film called Raging Sharks.


Corin: Oh yeah, behind the scenes we were all sitting around going WTF? When I got the initial script is was called Oceania and the sharks were a small subplot, and then after I’m signed on they change the name to “Raging Sharks”. Happens a lot, Sentinel turned into SS Doom Troopers and Troglodyte became Sea Beast.

Jay said he’d recently been on an episode of Monk as an evil contractor…. Art imitate life anyone?

Question: Have any of you ever done stage work and have any of you done Shakespeare?
They all handed their mics to John DeLancie, because he’s done a ton of stage and Shakespeare. Most the others had been on stage at one point or another. Dan Payne since he was a wee fella in London (only 6’5”)

 Colin told a story about being at a Fringe festival where one of his films called “Zacharia Farted” was being screened and no one was going to it. He went to see a fringe Shakespeare play and was BLOWN AWAY, so much so that he hung out after the show to congratulate the cast members. They ended up going out for a drink and they ran into the director. Colin was RAVING about how fantastic the play was and the director said, NO, you want to see something truly amazing, go see this film called Zacharia Farted, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve seen in years. Colin thought he was being put on, but the guy really had no idea that was Colin’s film.
 

And the panel ended with Jay telling a story about how he got kicked out of Disneyland, He was on a double date and his buddy started faking inappropriate activities with his girlfriend on the Tea Cup ride and as soon as the ride ended security was waiting for them and escorted them from the grounds. Which Jay was very grateful for because as he put it, “I would rather drink my own urine then go to Disneyland.” LOL

 SO, that ended the panel sessions for Saturday. The auction Saturday night was off the charts. I might do a picspam of that tonight before bed.

Current Mood: accomplished

Still trying the cut thing, maybe it'll work.

( Panel 3 - The Atlantis Panel )

( Panel 3 - The Atlantis Panel )

Current Mood: happy

As I said, unfortunately I missed Barry's Artic Experience talk on Saturday morning, it looked really cool (pun intended) but it was just such a nice day I wanted to get out and enjoy some of it.  I am going to try to put this posting behind a cut, but I am copying it from MS Word so God help me.....
( Panel 1 Bruce Woloshyn, Gary Chalk, Scott Schwarts )

Panel 1: Bruce, Gary, Scott
 

Gary said, YES, the biggest guys in Stargate. Bruce, yeah, I’m pretty sure we are at maximum stage load for these risers guys.

Bruce took a moment to explain why Simon Ager wasn’t able to be with us this weekend. He said it was all Gatecon’s fault. It seems Simon is a scuba instructor who hit it off marvelously with Paul Watson of Sea Shepard at Gatecon 2008. Simon is currently in the Mediterranean Sea on the Steve Irwin (Sea Shepard’s boat) blocking the illegal fishing of tuna. He had hoped to make it back in time for Gatecon, but no such luck.

First question was to Scott, they asked him how long some of his makeup has taken to do and has he ever fallen asleep in the chair. He said that some of his make up has taken 3-4 hours but he’s never been able to fall asleep because folks are always poking and prodding at you.

Gary related a tale of having an full facial cast made, otherwise known as being buried alive in algae with straws stuck up your nose so you can breathe and holding an exact facial expression for 20 minutes while supporting 40 pounds of casting material. GOOD TIMES! The facial expressions he was making during this talk were priceless, unfortunately, we missed getting them on camera, but his a nice pic of Gary from that session:

Scott added to Gary’s story saying he’d had the same thing done once, but they coated his goatee with Vaseline so that the gel didn’t stick, YEAH, not so much, he lost more then ½ his goatee.

Someone asked Bruce about his thoughts on Avatar and he said it raised the bar for everyone. But only someone like Cameron could have made that movie. Only someone that well known would’ve had the financial backing to pull it off. He said good 3D is absolutely fantastic/amazing, but bad 3D is HORRIBLE.

Someone asked about favorite sets and Gary answered that his was The Fly 2. That it was great to work with the monster because it was an actual giant puppet and it was so much more interesting/fulfilling then working opposite a green screen. He said the puppet was SOOO life like it scared the director’s little white dog who normally wasn’t afraid of anything.

That’s about all the notes I have for Panel 1. Going to test if I can get this cut to work, wish me luck!

Obviously there is something really wonky between writing in Word and pasting to LJ, I apologize, but really I can't sit in the stupid desk chair any longer!

Current Mood: tired

Sorry I'm behind on posting, but quite frankly, I was having WAY too much fun to stop and post. Those of you who have been to Gatecon before I know will understand, but my apologies none the less.

SO, Saturday was a bit crazy to say the least!  I'm going to start with Panel 2 because that's when all the mayhem broke out.  ( Send in the clowns )

Current Mood: cheerful

I must confess, I did skip the two morning sessions today, the writer's workshop and the Artic experience talk.  I'm not a writer, so no brainer there skipping that one, did kind of want to see the Artic session, but it was SOOOOO GORGEOUS out today AND I had to find a place to print out Joy's wonderful pics to have folks sign today.  So I only made it to the panel sessions after lunch but what a DOOZY of a day it was.

I don't have much time now, so I am just going to do a fly-by teaser pic post to hold you over until after I've had a chance to grab dinner and go to the auction this evening (which is ALWAYS a huge amusement).  I'll post after all that is done, I'm thinking it is going to be a HELL of a late night for this little duck.....( Fly By Pic Spam Posting )

Current Mood: amused

Okay, just back from the banquet and I only have one photo to post. My wonderful friend and gifted photographer with John DeLancie during the reception before dinner.



Other then that, dinner was good, not all that eventful.  Guests came round visiting all the tables. I ran into Paul McGillion in the reception area and he told me I was looking good, I tried to be a cheeky bastard and responded, "Well, yeah, sometimes I can clean up nice." but I still think I blushed from my toes to my ears (hopefully makeup covered most of it!). But seriously, any good looking man with a slight Scottish accent who says, "ay, you're looking quite lovely this evening" that doesn't make a gal go week in the knees, I want to check and make sure she's got a pulse - Just sayin!

Dinner was good, guests circulated.  Corin stopped by our table and I asked him if he'd actually seen the Supernatural script yet, and he said he had. I asked him AND SO, HOW IS IT, and he did the zip my lips shut type motion but then said, it's an introductory episode, so, it's pretty much the standard intro stuff. It'll take a couple more eps. to start to flesh out the character. BTW:  Corin has more belt buckles/belts then most woman have shoes. I swear, we've been here 1 1/2 days and I've seen him in 3 different belts (or at least belt buckles), but then again, he's got the house in Texas now so a belt buckle collection is probably a requirement for residency.

After dinner Colin Cunningham did some AMAZING mentalist acts. The first one he scared JR to DEATH smashing styrofoam cups, one of which had a spike in it and Colin was trying to sense where the spike was. (And he did it much to JR's relief) and next a random audience member hid a $100 bill Colin provided, and if he couldn't find it the person could keep it.  He did find it (probably by noticing people's little tells).  It was VERY cool to witness. If we are all just slightly more perceptive, just in tiny ways, imagine the potential for understanding our fellow humans... truly immeasurable.

Toward the end of the night I went over to Immaterialdepth someone I have been following on Twitter for forever now and introduced myself. She is a lovely local Vancouver gal who goes to/is involved with a lot of fantastic events. It was nice to meet her and congratulate her on helping to push Corin's SPN gig viral (It's popping up all over since she tweeted it - I tweeted it first, but well, she's got 10+ times the followers I do, so she got the word out faster to far more. GO GIRL!

Bruce W. stopped by our table for a bit and talked about his experiences. He was/is amazing!

Alex Zhara finally made it in tonight. He's been busy working all weekend, so missed the afternoon panel but he was kind enough to stop by this evening. Gary Chalk spotted a fellow SG1/X-files/21 Jump Street actor, Steven Williams. Who said, "THANK GOD, I arrived in time to save you from a brotherless party"


That was about it for the night. Since it's going on close to 1:00 AM here (which is 4:00 AM back home) It's time for bed.

Take care all, thanks for reading (and if you are, please feel free to comment so I know I'm not spending all this time for my own amusement, cuz if that's the case, I can amuse myself in LOTS of ways in Vancouver! ;)

Current Mood: tired

So for the final panel of the morning/day they gave us the pretty.

( Final Friday panel write up ) 

Current Mood: accomplished