Chicago CreationEnt '09

Gary and Dean begin their cabaret show "Starhole" also known as the episode where Walter gets to go through the gate and save the day:



"General Landry" and Walter notice a problem



"Sam Carter" and the "team" inform Walter of trouble on the planet they were just on



Wiith the "team" dead and "Sam" captured, it's up to Walter to fight the villianous "Evil Spock" to save the day (each moved by people from the audience)

Michael (minus socks because he forgot them) during his Q&A

Amanda during her Q&A

Paul and Rachel during their Q&A



When they first came out, Rachel said she was cold, so Paul toook off his jacket and handed it to her much to the "aaawwww"s of the audience

Good things come to those who wait: Joe's Q&A

Loving the con report and the pics! Thanks for representing us! **HUGS**

Great pics Becky.. Thanks for sharing...

But I have to ask -- What was that backdrop supposed to be?

oh see the stupid people put up real camo netting, meaning that it worked in the dispirsement of heat signatures....leading to odd pictures fartherback in the drowd

@BeckyL, those are some great pic's thanks for sharing them with us! Whats with the backdrop its just "so busy"

Like Meghan said, they used real camo netting as the backdrop. From a distance it looked fine to the human eye, but to a camera it caused a lot of problems. The Creation staff recieved complaints and tried to fix several things - leaving certain lights on overhead which reduced the 'yellow' effect (you see that in Gary and Connor's pics) also moving the guests forward on stage helped move them a bit away from the netting.

The real problem was the netting itself. It's designed to reflect heat and they had large, hot lights on the stage to light the guests. Unless you were within twenty feet of the stage, your pictures were pretty crappy. Even their big projection screens used so people in the back could see the guests better were affected - they were blurry. The only reason I got any good pics at all was because I was in row G within the twenty foot limit, had my camera at it's focus limits and got smart on the second day and turned off the flash (I put it on the setting for taking pictures in a museum) But I also had to be very still with that setting and *that* was difficult with some of the stories being told on stage.

Here's another pic - from the costume contest, There was a little boy (maybe two years old) dressed as Richard Woolsey! He was really cute in his little suit with a little book. But the parents kept him up really late that night so Amanda could see him and up early the next morning. Oh, and Meghan - I found out that the year before they had him dressed as 'Daniel in the flag' which, while kind of a cute idea was stupid since it was very cool -even cold - in that hotel. But here's the pic:

Here's a single of Rachel:



And a single of Paul:

Okay, back to con reports?

I still can't remember much about Connor's Q&A. I know he takled about wearing the makeup and how it can be hard to see with that stuff on. Picture big, bad wraith saying his menising lines, turning around and walking into the wall cause he can't see the doorway clearly. That happened several times. He also talked about that fact that he did some of his own fighting on the show. Nothing more than throwing punchs and that kind of stuff really. No 'wire' work - where Michael was thrown across rooms or anything like that. He left that up to the stuntmen.

First up on Saturday morning was photo op with Michael. "Scruffy" Michael as it was called. We got in line early and actually did see Michael come into the hotel literally from the airport. He was only there for that day so he had very little with him. Pretty much just a suit he would be wearing later. He was very bright and chipper and *very* handsome even with the scruffy beard. Once I get someone to scan them for me, I'll upload the pics from the photo ops too. I think the card we gave Michael said "Thank you for ten great years of memories. On behalf of the Hewlett Squirrels" or something close to that. And I mentioned before that he liked the buttons - actually loved the button of Chris Judge's ADB character.

Michael's Q&A was fun. First he 'posed' when he came out, knowing that people would be snapping photos like mad, and he knows how to give them good shots! He was all cleaned up on stage. Shaved and in the suit, but he forgot to bring socks he he just had on shoes. Image his surprise to be informed by people in the sudience that the gift shop at the hotel sold socks. (Later, they were completely sold out - hm, wonder why?) and that there was a Target store not far away. I'm betting they had a run of socks too. ;-)

Michael talked about a lot of things. Various episodes of SG-1, several movies he has made (including a few of the stinkers that he had wished no one would bring up, so naturally someone had to bring them up - Megasnake, anyone?) He mentioned something (can't remember what) and at least half the audience already knew about it because his wife Lexa had brought it up on twitter. Michael's reaction: "She's really got to stop that twitter shit."

Michael had a second photo op - "super Suave" Michael - by himself and then one with Amanda. The lines for those two photo ops were loonnnggg. But when it came time for the photo op with just Amanda, I don't think I've seen a line that long in years. But well worth the wait.

Amanda was just bubbly. She was maybe more excited to meet her fans than they were to meet her. She would easily have spent ten or fifteen minutes with each person if she could have. In her card we put "Thank you for eleven years of protraying a strong, intellegent woman. We look forward to many more years of Sanctuary. On behalf of the Hewlett Squirrels."

It had been five years since Amanda had been to Chicago and clearly, she was the one person *everyone* had come to see! I don't think there was one empty seat during her Q&A. Not even sure there was standing room. But, boy, was she good. Kind of like a kid who has a really exciting summer vacation and just came home to tell all her friends about her trip. (Or like me writing these con reports, LOL) She had stories of a wide number of SG-1 episodes and talked about Sanctuary. She has started a production company with Martin Gero and they are lining up projects. I've got a feeling we'll be seeing Amanda in the entertainemnt world for some time to come. Someone did ask her how she liked being called the "Queen of Sci-fi" Amanda's reply: "I prefer Grand Empress"

The autographs for Michael and Amanda came next. Now, I have to sidetrack for just a minute. I was seating in row G, seat 23. Not too bad of a seat really, fairly close to the stage and actually near the middle so good view and got autographs fairly early - except for Paula and Joe, mor on that later. Seated next to me were a couple of people from Alberta who were at their first Creation con too. They were a woman about my age and her uncle whose name was Dennis. Now Dennis was very friendly and very excited - he ended up getting every single photo op they offered from the whole convention! So he got three with Michael, two with Amanda, two with Joe and two with Paul. But there was something familiar about him I just couldn't put my finger on.

Dennis mentioned that at the first photo op with Michael, Michael took a glance at standing in line and did a double take. Michael didn't say anything to him but kept kind of looking at him out of the corner of his eye. When Dennis had his photo op with both Michael and Amanda Amanda told him that he looked like David Someone - Dennis could not remember the last name. He asked me and I could not think of who she could be talking about, after all Amanda knows several people named David and those are just the ones I know of. But both Michael and Amanda had been knocked over by his appearence. Well, when we went to get their autographs, Michael saw Dennis coming up to the table and said "Hey there's our Dave Foley twin" Dave Foley!! As soon as Michael said it, both myself and another lady who had sat near us and had spent a lot of time talking with us said "Yes! That's who he's been reminding us of!" The even funnier thing was that Dennis didn't know who Dave Foley was! Michael tried to name off several shows that dave Foley had done, Newsradio, Kids in the Hall, ect. but Dennis was still in the dark. The only bit of light he got was when I asked him if he had seen the episode "Brainstorm" from Atlantis. Yes, he had seen that. So he had an idea of who Dave Foley was, but I suggested when they got home to look him up on the net. And really, he did look like Dave Foley, just a bit thinner.

Saturday night was the dessert party for the Gold members - which Meghan and I had been. The desserts were yummy, but limited in choices. Bits of cake and a couple of pastry things cut into small peices and cookies cut into fourths. They had a cash bar but for those who didn't want alcohol - and that was actually about half the room - they had to settle for water which only came out after the hotel staff was prompted to bring it out.

After everyone had finished their desserts, Amanda, Gary and Dean came out. They went from table to table chatting with people for about five minutes before being directed to the next table. Gary and Dean were very good at keeping to the time of the handlers, at least until theyh hit two tables - one with a group of young, pretty French girls who giggled a lot during the weekend (don't get me wrong, they were nice girls, just giggly) and the table near ours where everyone had brought jelly shots and were sharing them with the guests and Creation staff. Meghan, Amanda (AtlantisJackson) and I heard the next morning that Amanda wasn't allowed to take the jelly shots. Not sure what that was about, but when she acted like she was going to drink it, the handler reached up and said, "Ah, Amanda, you're not allowed that." I don't know if she's been sick or if whatever they used in the shot was something she was allergic to. She didn't argue from what we were told, just accepted it.

There was a centerpeice competition going on too. People were allowed to creat a centerpeice and display it. No one knew who the judges were but different people from the Creation staff and of course the guests were stopping and looking at the centerpeices. Some of them were just dumb. A stuff moose or an alien from Aliens. They were suppose to be about Stargate and the convention. At our table a girl had created a very large centerpeice that took her five weeks to create using a lot of resin she molded into shape. She runs a website called Wormhole Riders and it kind of advertised the site. It wasn't bad, but ended up losing to one that was put together by a woman and her 12 year old daughter which featured cutouts of every guest at the convention. And when Amanda sat at our table, poor Meghan didn't really get to see her because the darn centerpeice was in the way. Here's a couple of pics:








When Amanda finally got to our table, it was late in the night. She apologized saying she appearently talks too much. She did ask us where we were all from and when I mentioned being from Bloomington, IL she said "I know where that is. My brother lives in Champaign. Don't you have to go through Bloomington to get to here from Champaign?" Yes, you do! Champaign is about 45 minutes east of Bloomington and is where Artist4life lives! So, very cool to discover Amanda has family in one of the last places I would have thought they would be - Central Illinois.

David's twitter wishing Amanda a happy birthday reminded me of what happen at the con. Someone brought up the fact that while her birthday was still days away, he thought it would be a good idea to wish her a happy birthday then. So the entire audience sang Happy Birthday and she was just so touched by it.

Later while she was on stage, a sign which read Staragte SG-1/Starage Atlantis they had stuck to a podium fell off. Amanda saw it and went over to put it back on the podium. She was answering a question so had her hands full and trying to get the sign to stick on again. So...she started rubbing her hip against the sign to press it on the tape. After a second, she even started to make a show of it and asked "So what do you think this will go for on e-bay now?" At least one guy yelled out a bid and Amanda just laughed out loud.

OK my saturday report reads like this....

So first up today was the scruffy Michael Shanks Photo, where we gave him an amazing doodle that Starry does (will make my slave monkey give me one so I can show you all the awesomeness that they encompass. Poor not yet awake Michael looks at it and turns it around, before asking how does he look at this thing and was there a right way to look at it. Once she explained that there was no right way to look at it he relaxed and took the picture, when I got the picture back Michael looks hung-over as do I, and Starry looks like she was the designated driver. Then went to Potbelly's for lunch, good cheap food!
Came back to listen to Michael…who had no socks, who then announced that the reason he looked like he did, slightly more dressed and shaved, was because of all the complaints that he had gotten for looking like that over the years. Some of the more memorable moments of the speech included:
When he was asked what he had learned while playing Daniel Jackson?
"Death is not the end or try try try try try again…"
When someone mentioned his wife's twittering…
" I told her to knock that shit off!"
When discussing the rebranding of SyFy Channel…
"We shall not mock, but we will anyway!"
Then there was the moment where he informed us that he "Would sign anything" as proven he informed us that he had signed a pleasure device…
When asked about working on other shows he informed us that while it was interesting all he wanted to do at the end of the week was to go shoot something…
The talk went on with a number of other things that were hysterical but I have to admit that, I'm just to tired to write them all out right now.
The second Suave photo op, stood in line for that one and it was a short wait, so when we asked Michael about the doodle we had given him earlier he informed us that he had thought about and smoked something and the answer was green…how in the hell was the answer GREEN to a black and blue doodle, This picture looked like me and Michael were tipsy and Starry was the sober designated driver.
Amada's photo op was well not right after but the waiting in line for her photo op began directly after the last one. SO we waited…and waited and then we waited some more. When we got in we gave her the doodle her's was in Teal and Black. We also gave her a shirt that said VWIL, which is the core that Starry is a part of and I am an honorary member of, it is the only all female corp of Cadets in the WORLD, she was really excited and put the shirt on for the Photo..will have that up soon! She liked the doodle too! Told me later that she assumed the answer was purple, what was it with her and Shanks assuming the answer was a squirrel!!
During the Autograph signing I informed Michael that in our first picture he looked hung-over, h e didn't believe me until I showed him the picture and he gasped informing me he really did look drunk. While he looked at what I gave him he got really excited, and asked if I was inspired by DeMotivators, which I was, so he told me that I should twitter her about it so I sent her the following tweet "@LexaShmexa hi your husband told me to send you this for a laugh http://bit.ly/dPXvf,also he says to stop this twitter shit, from a squirrel" There was an interesting response to that from her….

There was more but really nothing of real squirrel importance.

Okay, since you brought it up, you have to tell us her response.... well, if it's printable.. You know how curious squirrels get..