A dilettante’s adventures and misadventures collecting autographed books, baseballs, and photos; meeting celebrities and ball players; and attending conventions from the past 35 years.
I worked my way to the front and I handed over the photos
and let him sign. As he finished, I mentioned that The Wife and I had just
binged Monk. I told him I saw him in an episode. With a sheepish smile, he mentioned that was not his best performance. Afterward, I realized I should have mentioned Twelve Monkeys. I enjoyed that show and he became an important character.
Then I was on my way.
AH
He was friendly. He looked up to make eye contact. I found out my my buddy 'talked whiskey' with him. They exchanged a few sentences on that topic.
Me, I had nothing. So I passed along my pen. Our exchange was clumsy
and the pen dropped. It splattered gold ink. Barely noticeable. Because of where he
signed, it almost looks like a flourish to accentuate his signature.
AH
When I walked away, I noticed she didn’t include her last
name. At first, I thought she was distracted by the goings on in the room. I did
a check google search and it seems that is how she signs.
AH
Yeah, he should have been on my list. If for anything, it
was the TV series Twelve Monkeys. Which I really enjoyed and a shame those
actors aren’t on the convention circuit.
He was nice and between interruptions from people paying homage,
very friendly.
I was glad I stopped by his table.
AH
The last couple of years I have been using pen paints for some of the autographs. I have some successes and some failures. This was almost a failure.
When I finally got to the table for Christina Chong, I had shaken
my pen, blotted it, and handed the pen and photo over. I recapped the paint pen. The recapping was
my mistake.
She needed a little more than a causal twist to remove the
cap. It splattered. I was distracted with handing money to the handler. I didn't notice the splattering until she looked down at her white t-shirt. She was quickly checking for
blue paint. This was not good. I felt
really bad. I know I can offer to clean or pay for the shirt but I expect it had some
sentiment attached and the shirt would never be the same.
She comforted to me and the crowd that the white t-shirt survived
untouched. I apologized. blushed. Apologized again. She smiled and told
me not to worry and then signed. That was very kind of her.
I walked away from the table with my photo but still chagrined.
AH
Strange New Worlds is very good. The first season has
made me cringe at times and other times, it has gotten a pass. Overall, I have enjoyed it. With that being
said, I don’t envy Dan Jeannotte. He is playing James Kirks brother.
The actor is funny and, in a panel, he had the audience laughing.
At the signing, he was moving quickly because of the long line but he was still
friendly.
AH
She was friendly. We chatted and I got one of her table photos.
I was happy.
A little later, I was chatting with some buddies that attended
the show with me. One mentioned he also got her autograph. Adele was a dancer and had
advice for his daughter who wanted to start dancing. At the end, he gave her
some advice back. He told her she was under charging for her autograph. He suggested that she increase
her price to be more in line with other actors. She listened and took his advice. Of
course, I got her autograph AFTER she listened to him. I laughed when I heard
that. The price was still fair.
I did toy with the idea of returning to her table full of
mock indignation. While it might have been fun, I think it might have been too awkward
and maybe not as fun for her. In this case, letting
sleeping dogs lie was best.
AH
Because his character hasn’t had air time yet, no one as in
his line. Fans didn’t know who he was. I walked over and he saw the photo I printed.
He mentioned looking forward to people’s reactions.
Over the last year or so, I started adding brief notes about
the actors on my laundry list of names I’m working on at a convention. Common places
we lived or others shows I enjoyed. Because
I was brain dead at the time, I forgot to mention The Expanse. Again, he played
a character where the public doesn’t see his face but he was part of that
amazing series.
Autograph collecting, like life is a work in progress. Amble
opportunities for improvement.
AH
If you know me, I really prefer to get the autographs in person. I make exceptions all the time but 98% of my autographs I collected by myself. There is a rush I get. It’s part of the addiction. And I do enjoy when I get the extra few seconds or minutes with the celebrity.
I was planning on standing in line to get Melissa Navia’s autograph.
Her line was long. Very long. It was moving slowly. I think there was a vendor or
reseller at the front that got a massive number of signatures. I had a constraint.
I had diner plans with The Wife and friends.
Unfortunately, when you buy autographs in advance, you have
no idea when the convention will schedule the signing. Creation does schedule a
lot of signing that start around 5 PM or so. Frustrating when you want to do something
outside of the convention.
So, I was stuck. Do I leave to do to diner? Or do I make The
Wife and friends unhappy and wait. It was suggested that I offer to buy someone’s
place in line. I toyed with that. However, I decided to ask for help. I’m not
good at that. I just walked up to a person and told her I needed help. She did
not shut me down. So, I explain the issues and what I wanted. She was worried about
doing something wrong. I calmly answered her questions and her friend helped by
nodding her head in agreement.
All I wanted was to give her my autograph ticket and photo. I
told my Samaritan where I would stand and she would come to me when she was done. About 20 minutes later she saw me and walked
over. I thanked and tried to pass along some money for her effort. She looked
confused and I told her this was a HUGE favorite and it got me out of a jam
with The Wife. She turned down the money.
I want to give a tip of the cap to the unknown Sarmatian
that helped me get Melissa’s autograph.
AH
I missed out on getting Dawn Lewis at last year’s convention. She was there on a day I wasn’t. I was happy she decided to come again this year.
I was toward the front of the line when she arrived. She and
a few other had just finished some photo ops. While you know the actor will
appear at some time, the waiting and the unknown of ‘when’ is the hardest
part. More often than not, the scheduled
time is a suggestion. Also, communication from the convention staff/volunteers is
already lacking or incorrect about delays or reschedules.
She asked if I was having a good time and I thanked her from
coming to Vegas.
Then I was off to get another ‘graph.
AH
Hana Hatae was nice. She was all smiles as people came to
see her. Her signing was at the end of the day and they were trying to do 4 or
5 signings in the same room. Creation had us lined up in the corridor outside the
room. We were sent into the room based which actor was present. Not the most coordinated
signing. But not the worst either.
The good thing was the actors didn’t see the confusion. They
might have heard some of it but I‘m sure it wasn’t the first time they
experience some chaos at a convention.
AH
Linda Park was one of the few remaining autographs I need from
that series.
Her line was long and she was signing quickly. After she
signed, I thanked her in Korena…or so I thought. She knew what I meant and politely
corrected me. The Korean I learned was from karate and with a Jersey accent. I’m
sure my pronunciation is askew. At least she didn’t slap me.
AH
And once again I had a good time. While I have some negative
feelings about Creation, to be fair, they do bring in an impressive lineup of
actors.
I know everyone gets excited about the celebs from the new
series, I get excited about the actors that appeared in one episode from the
original series. I have watched those episodes so many times that any one of
them is an old friend.
This year there were 4 actors I focused on.
Michael Dante was in Friday’s Child. He was friendly. He worried that I’d put my photo away too quickly. He must know me. I do that too often. One thing I did not realize as I stood in line, was how many roles he had over the years.
I have crossed paths with Bobby Clark a few times. I didn’t
get his autograph because I thought I already had it. He was nice. He was very
willing to chat. He also gave out $100 Gorn bills when you got the autograph. He
did not believe me that green was the perfect color for his signature. He was
thinking a silver or yellow. I was
insistent. Even after signing, he was skeptical. I love it. I bet you agree with
me.
Beverly Washburn was sweet and friendly. She signed and was willing to chat. Her role was short in Deadly Years. She was the sacrificial lamb so we knew how deadly the issue was.
I must admit I was very excited about France Nuyen. Not my
favorite episode but it is the one what showed Kirk loving the ship more than
anyone. The signature did not work out. She signed with her black pen and it looked
good for the person in front of me. Then she signed my photo and it instantly
died. I planned on getting back to her. By the time I did, she was gone for the
show.
Regardless, I was just as excited to see these 4 as the others I met over the weekend. It was a good convention.
AH
What I really wanted to have her sign was something from Remo
Williams. I couldn’t find anything worth printing. And to be truthful, I couldn’t
find a great photo from Voyager either.
She was very professional in her signing. She tried to give
everyone a few seconds. When I mentioned
Remo Williams. She paused. She said Fred just passed away. Her co-star did pass
away. But I was thinking more about how fun of a movie it was.
Then I said my thanks and took my photo.
AH
Tawny Newsome was scheduled to appear Thursday only. I’ll admit I was disappointed. My travel plans had me arriving after the convention ended on Thursday. When I was in the vendors room and I saw signage about her appearing again, I was psyched.
After a very long line, I handed over my photo. She paused. I
wasn’t sure why. She commented that the photo had the 2 aliens on it. That didn’t
really mean anything to me. She held it up to her handler to see. Then she
added that she preferred having them in the photo. I was glad I made her happy.
After I left, I was browsing photos that the convention was
selling and I saw their version of my photo. They had cropped out the 2 aliens.
Their photo was nice but it seemed like an odd thing to do considering how much
open space there was.
AH
When I handed my photo over to her, she was wearing a green
crown (to symbolize her queenly status). Obviously, she was fully embracing her
character with the fans. Her eyes lit up as she recognized the picture. She excitedly
said it was Supernatural. Considering she was only in 1 episode; I was impressed
and I told her that. She said it was a fun episode. I explained I choose that photo
because it was memorable. We both agreed it was creepy with the dolls.
AH
She moved through it fast. Giving a brief smile and eye contact.
She paused when the couple in front of me asked for some qualification on some
series she worked on other than Deep Space 9. She didn’t rush them off. she
told them what they wanted to know and then tuned to me.
I’m happy I finally added this one to my collection.
AH
Several months ago, a coworker asked me about the Vegas convention. As I was passing along tips and writing down some expectations about the show, I looked at the guest list. Rebecca Romijn was listed. It didn’t take me long to talk myself into wanting to attend in 2022.
Rebecca was signing in a side room. The fans were called by
the type of badge or ticket number. I was fairly far down the list to be called. She was
chatting and signing at the same time. And doing a good job of it.
She was signing a lot of non-Trek items. The guy in front of me had a photo of her and
several other bikini clad models. He asked
for advice on getting in contact with the others in the photo. As she shook her head no, the security type guy
laughed and said he wanted that info too. Then everyone laughed.
When she signed for me, I mentioned I enjoyed The
Librarians. She nodded and said it was
good working on that show.
AH
The next day, I was again about 10 people back when Ian
showed. It didn’t take long before I was in front of him. As he signed, I mentioned The OA. I said, I really enjoyed the show and like
most of the fans, disappointed to was over.
Ian agreed it was disappointing. And
also confirmed they had multiple seasons planned and ready to shoot. We both agreed
there was so much potential in the upcoming seasons.
AH
