I-CON 21: Saturday, 20 April, 2002
I actually got up around 6am so I could catch the 7am bus from NJ to Penn Station, finally arriving at Stony Brook around 11am after a very long commute where I was subject to very odd looks and creepy grins from weirdos because of the hobby horse...stick pony...thing, black plastic sword, and two Spongebob Squarepants bags I was carrying. I promptly got lost when I stepped off the train cos I was very disoriented. There was this guy who kinda looked like a sci-fi geek(meaning, he looked like all my other guy friends) and asked him if he was going to I-CON and basically followed him to where registration was. Got out of registration and made it down to the Cyberbar to meet all the other loons. I walked in right when everyone was taking group pictures so I got pulled in too with my Vertically Challenged Ringraith costume. Much fun ensued with us trying to pose with me threatening everyone but it didn't work out too well since you're not supposed to be laughing when one of the Nazgul is riding you down(even if she is shorter than everyone else). Then another Ringwraith(who turned out to be Rayvah :) walked in with StefBaggins, but the best thing was she had COCONUT HALVES, so she followed me around and we became the Monty Python Ringwraiths. We ran around the student center for a bit, and got some very strange looks from the "norms". Then we posed for more pictures, this time with Stef, who was very pretty in her wee hobbit lass dress. Only Stef is taller than me, and you can't have a hobbit taller than the Ringwraith so we ended up standing on chairs trying to re-enact Weathertop while praying that I didn't fall off and break my neck since the chair wasn't very stable. This of course made Stef laugh and when other people start laughing, I laugh too. Luckily, no one could tell since my face was hidden behind the black mesh fabric. It did make it even harder to balance on the chair tho.
Anyway, it soon became time to go to the Q&A session. We arrived early and sat through Brian Downey's session first. I felt sooo sorry for him cos most of us were there waiting for Billy, and there weren't too many questions. At one point, he said, "you're all here waiting for Billy, aren't you?"(I think the bb.net shirts gave it away). Despite that, he was SUCH a good sport about it, even after one guy mistakenly thought he was Billy and asked him a LotR question. I really felt bad about the lack of questions and managed to think up three generic sci-fi questions to ask since I've never seen his show. I asked:
a) Did he have any concerns that appearing in a sci-fi show would pigeon-hole him to a certain genre? He said these sort of issues come up in just about any genre, not just sci-fi, and while there is always some concern, it really isn't significant(or something along those lines).
b)What was his first con experience like? From what he said, it sounded like a fan organized con for LEXX where basically they just showed up at the set and everyone had a blast.
c)What did he feel about the general public's view that sci-fi wasn't legitimate art? He thought it was ridiculous cos science fiction is still FICTION, and there's some great science fiction and a lot of bad fiction out there.
Fantastic person, and I would watch Lexx just cos he was so nice(even if he did keep calling me a shadow). Too bad I don't have cable anymore.
Finally it was time for his Boydship. You knew it was time cos a huge mob of people came in and sat down. Unlike the Brian session, they knew there'd be a LOT of questions so they set up two mikes on either side of the room and told us to line up if we had something we wanted to ask. We were looking around at all the entrances wondering where Billy would come in, when a whole troop of stormtroopers(and we're talking really GOOD stormtroopers. Those costumes must have cost a small fortune) marched in with Billy in the center. It was very funny, but necessary to keep all the fangirls at bay. He was wearing a black short-sleeved button shirt and jeans. The Q&A started, and I'm gonna forget most of the questions asked cos I was so nervous and excited. Ok fine, the truth is my brain shut down Friday night at the Viggo signing and did not come back until Sunday morning. But here's what I can remember:
He was soooo sweet to the little girls there. He took extra time and care to answer their questions. One of the first questions was from a little girl in the front row who asked if he was scared during that scene where he and Merry get carried away by the Uruk-hai cos she thought it was scary. And he was like, "ohhh yeah, that was really scary, wasn't it?" in a very sweet gentle voice while looking directly at her(I guess it was a good thing she hadn't hit puberty yet or else she'd be swooning ^_~). He then proceeded to tell how difficult that scene in general was to shoot because he basically had to be carted around by these large bulky men. One of the little girls was wearing a pink princess dress with wings, and he told her she looked very pretty and asked her to turn around so he could see all of it. awwwwwwww This man will make a great daddy one day.
Other questions asked(some of these we will already know the answer to, but were asked at the Q&A so I'm putting them here):
- There was a question raised about his family kilt. He wears the Stewart kilt, which is red.
- His scruffy beard is for the Sniper 470 movie, where he plays a gun operator located on a satellite orbiting earth. His character is all alone on the satellite and he mans this giant gun.
- His favorite line from the movie was "Where are we going?" because it so perfectly summed up the Pippin character.
- He very nearly succeeded in teaching Dom to play guitar. Unfortunately Dom dropped the guitar the second he got into his apartment and snapped it in two(DD apparently, manifests itself in both textual and physical form).
- One of his favorite scenes to film was the "second breakfast" scene. The snow you see there is real. It started snowing while they were filming and the snow flakes were tremendous, much larger than what they get even in Scotland. He held his hands apart to show just how big they were. Buuuut because it's New Zealand, and Peter WOULD insist on filming on the most remote part of the land, there was only one road back to civilization. So of course their van broke down, and all the hobbits had to get out and push while still in full costume. And of course the one four-wheel drive truck whizzed by with everyone inside laughing at the hobbits. Then it gets even better-- they finally get back to their hotel only to find that their rooms weren't ready yet cos they were early, so they had to sit in the washing room on top of the washing machines to get their feet removed. Luckily Viggo came to their rescue when he popped in with a bottle of scotch to warm them up. So the hobbits and Aragorn all got drunk together.
- Least favorite scene to film was the one outside the gates of Moria. It was night, it was cold, water kept seeping into their feet but wouldn't drain out again, so it would freeze inside the hobbit foot prosthetic, and nothing they tried could fix it. Not fur, not heating pads, nothing. All in all, it was a very miserable time for everyone and it was the one time he actually felt like crying, but of course he couldn't.
- Speaking of crying, how did he cry after the Moria scene? He explained how basically you have to do take after take in the morning, have a break for lunch, and then do even more takes in the afternoon. It's enough to make anyone cry.
- A question was asked about Treebeard and the Ents(the girl asking said she thought his expression in the TT trailer when he realizes the tree is alive was priceless), and he told this really funny story about filming that scene. He and Dom were way up high in the tree and kinda harnessed in so they wouldn't fall and break their necks. After a while, it became too much of a hassle to keep having to climb down, and then climb back up again in between during breaks, so finally they just ended up having their tea passed up to them and they'd have it up in the tree while everyone else basically just ditched them. So during all those long lonely times together they finally started having conversations with the tree and it was really funny.
- He talked a bit about the scene during Bilbo's party when Merry and Pippin set off the fireworks(put it in the ground, it IS in the ground, this was YOUR idea!). Billy was under the impression that the firework going off would be done with fancy CGI later on, but it turned out Peter had it explode for real, which stunned him. The thing basically fired off and blew out through the back of the tent. After which Peter was like "cut. right that's it. got it in one take". :D
- A girl(yes, the crowd was primarily made up of females) asked about the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama and wanted to know if he would recommend it since she wanted to study acting and wanted to apply there. He said it was a good school, and in fact they have an American exchange program she should look into.
- He was asked how he felt about how, thanks to the website, there are now hundreds of people all over the world using words like "feart" now. He thought it was great that the Scottish language is getting spread about.
- Mary the Hug Nazi(tm) interrupted frequently with her own questions which for the most part, were rather lame. She asked how he got the part. He said how he went in, met with Peter and read for it. I can't remember if it was a generic reading for both Merry and Pippin, or if it was just for Pippin specifically. Anyway after a bit of that he finally got the call saying the part was his.
- He was asked a theatre question, and he told this story about how he once did this Classical Shakespeare-style production where the show is staged in the style it originally was done back during the bard's time. Basically, instead of the whole play, you only learn the lines right before and after you, so it's really quite exciting cos you're all standing around wondering "when the heck is my next line?!" and no one really quite knows what's going on. It's a big rush and something he enjoyed doing and would like to do again.
- Did he know anyone prior to making the movie? No he did not.(I think we all already knew that one)
- He was not injured while filming on set, but he did break his pinky surfing, and he didn't want to tell Peter so the nice people over at WETA made him an invisible splint to wear. This worked out fine until the sword fighting scenes where he ended up having to fight English style(at this point he held out his pinky very effeminitely)
- He told a VERY interesting story about how apparently, Tolkien had originally planned for the hobbits to be fitted with these special boots at Rivendell which the elves make for them to help them along in their journey. But somewhere along the way it just never made it into the books. When they found that out, all they could think of was how much easier everything would have been if he had written that in.
- He was asked if he was aware of the tremendous fan community out there, and if he ever perused any of the message boards. He thought it was great that people were getting together this way and that's what's so great about the Internet. He and a few others have been to the boards a few times but he's actually very technically illiterate and requires assistance. (meanwhile I'm thinking I'll provide free tech support for ya anytime XD)
Like I said, my brain was frozen and I couldn't think of a question, so I asked one from the forum that I thought was good and wanted to know the answer to anyway: I asked how he met Stewart and why he decided to get a website. It turned out he met Stewart when he was a lighting designer in a play Billy was in. They became friends worked together in several more plays, and eventually one night they were out in a bar(why am I not surprised?) and Stewart told Billy he should get a website, and Billy said well, he wouldn't know how to go about doing it. By this time, Stewart was running several different websites with Biscuit Media so Stew said he could do it, and thus, bb.net was born. Addendum: Stewart has since clarified Billy's version of this tale on the forum here: http://www.billyboyd.net/cgi-bin/forumb1/YaBB.pl?board=wee;action=display;num=1019055000;start=15
Afterwards I had some time to kill, and I was REALLY hot cos my costume was so stuffy. I found Jennie sitting by the door(it was raining outside) and sat with her and Emma, cooled off, had a quick bite to eat, basically just gathered myself. We were starting to get a little annoyed with the con staff cos we were getting conflicting times for the signing session, and they wouldn't let you line up until one hour prior. So everyone kinda "hovered" near where the signing would be. I popped down to the dealer room real quick just to see what they had, where I met Jason Carter, got a picture signed(he signed it "Love is truth"), and got my picture taken with him, courtesy of the great Gonzai. I was sooo nervous I basically made an ass of myself babbling about I forget what, but he was still so kind and polite. Anyway, back up to where we were "hovering" and they finally opened up the line.
I kinda got pushed toward the end of the line, which sucked something major cos by the time I got up, the Hug Nazis(tm) had added the "no hugging" rule. BUT, this is a testament to what a tremendous person Billy is. When it was my turn, he had already been doing this for about two hours and was absolutely exhausted, but he still greeted me cheerily with that sweet smile we love so much. He genuinely seemed happy to meet you. There are some famous people who while they greet you with a smile, you can tell it's just the "Hollywood persona" and the truth is they can't wait to get this dreary publicity thing over and done with. He seemed amused that I had given him a book, while Stewart got toys. I don't know what he's going to think of the Homer Simpson lollipops I also threw in the bags. He signed my official movie guide book legibly below Viggo's name, which also impressed me muchly cos his hand must have been killing him by then. So I guess the good thing about being at the end was even tho I didn't get a hug, I have a greater respect for his Boydship as a person that I don't think I would have gotten if I was up front. I also FINALLY got to meet Stewart, and thanked him for all his hard work and patience on the site. I didn't take a picture with the bmg Overlord cos like I said, I am a baka, but I did shake his hand. Oh yes, and one more thing: Stewart has really cool funky rad hair. ^____^
I got out of the signing around 7pm so I had to run off to catch the train back home and miss the Inside the SF Actor's panel. The train ride was interesting. I ended up sitting with these drunken rednecks. But since I like talking to drunk people(yeah, I'm weird but it's a great study in human behavior) it was kinda funny.
The con itelf: erghh...it was the worst organized con I'd ever been to. The people in charge were not very good about getting information out to the staff/volunteers. And I don't know... even if things go wrong at other cons I've been to, I've always gotten a good vibe from the people running it, like you could tell they were trying their best but things sometimes runaway out of control. They also handled the signing session very poorly. I know and understand that as staff members you get certain "perks", one of them being able to get multiple things signed by the GoH and posed pictures. BUT YOU DO NOT DO THIS IN PLAIN SITE OF EVERYONE DURING THE SCHEDULED SESSION FOR THE MASSES. Every con I know of holds this little "special" session later behind closed doors so as not to piss off the other con goers. Eating up OUR time just to get your stuff signed is not the way to go about it. Plus, they were mean to Gonzai and that's so not right. >:0
Alas, I couldn't go back on Sunday because I found out Friday night after I got home from Viggo that I have to go visit relatives on Sunday so they can interrogate me on what I'm doing, but more importantly, why aren't I married yet, I'm getting old, men don't want an old crone, maybe if I smiled and wore makeup and skirts they'd like me better, blahblahblah. But I am so grateful that I did get to go for at least once day, especially when there are so many others who probably wanted to go even more than I did, but couldn't.
Final thoughts: I was very sad when I had to leave. I didn't want to go and I wished that I had stayed in the hotels for the whole weekend because I felt like I was missing out on so much more. I was initially nervous about meeting all the loons and almost skipped going to the Cyberbar entirely. But then I figured well, I'll just sneak in quietly with my nazgul costume and no one will notice me since I'll be all in black, and no one would see my face cos it was hidden behind the face mesh anyway. But, I forgot that I had posted on the forum about my costume and when I walked in, it was like, "Yui!". ^_^; And that made me feel welcome right away. I normally avoid any sort of crowd situation, especially any that involves meeting new people because I just get very uncomfortable and feel as if everyone already knows each other and I'm odd man out. But I-Con was the first time I didn't feel that way and I think that says alot about the forum. I've been online since about 1993, and I've seen it change alot over those years and I can honestly say this is the first time I've seen any sort of online community that so openly accepts everyone without prejudice, and hasn't broken up into elite little "cliques" where newbies and "uncool" people are not welcome. Stewart and Billy, stand up and take a bow. You have said that we were the ones that make this happen, but none of this WOULD have happened if not for you.
--Ms. Yui D'iot
Yeah yeah screw you and your boring story-- GIMME THE PICS!
- The re-enactment of Weathertop, take 1
- The re-enactment of Weathertop, take 2
- Brian Downey of Lexx
- Julio con Queso y algunas otras mujeres locas
- His Boydship finally enters with an armed guard of stormtroopers
- Exit stormtroopers, stage right
- The first of many blurry, underexposed, and grainy shots of his Boydship
- His Boydship delivering one of his many hugs(none of which I got *sniff sniff*)
- He looks at you very thoughtfully while you ask your question
- At last, his Boydship is inducted into the Fellowship of the Wee Scarvies(tm)
- Say who's that loonie getting a hug from Billy?(it's Jennie! it's Jennie!)
- heehee...he scratches the back of his head when he's talking too!(and here I thought it was just a bad habit I picked up from too much anime)
- And here he is scratching the top of his head(sorry, I just think it's incredibly cute when he scratches his head.....shaddup -_-;)
- More people who are NOT ME getting hugs from his Boydship
- I think this is the end of the Q&A session
- Woo! Imperial soldier and two stormtroopers
- Billy at his autograph session
- Renfaire woman in a gorgeous dress
- The hittokiri battosai appears at I-CON
LINKS:
- Official I-CON site
- Billy Boyd.net
- LotR Fanclub message boards
- Hawmoonwinter's page, which also has manymany other links
- Jennie's Diary
- StefBaggin's Account
- Pluisje's journal
- Emma's Super Awesome Pictures That Put Mine to Shame
- LizontheAttack's page
- Pat's Mission...Quest....Thing Handed Down by the King of Gondor Himself
- Lavagrrrl's msn community
- Nihm's page
- SiliconSlave's pictures
- Da_girl_in_da_jeans account
- LadyofMirkwood's tale
- JadeHawke's story
- LegendWinterhawk's pictures
- Elrithiel's page
PEOPLE! EMAIL ME links to your own personal I-CON accounts.
