katysam

I've just come back from seeing Melbourne Storm play the Newcastle Knigts. Storm won 18-4 but I got to say I was a little concerned at half time when the score was 0-0. Let's just say the game was all about defense.

Before I got to bed I wanted to post some details and photos about the Firefly/Serenity Con yesterday. If you're interested, just click the cut.

Yesterday

bobbinrob and I spent the day hanging out with Nathan Fillion and Ron Glass from Firefly/Serenity and Jason Palmer.

Our days started bright and early when we met at 8am. I wasn't actually aware 8am even existed on a Sunday! *wide eyes*

Once the doors were open it didn't take us long to get in and purchase our photo ops - one with Nathan and one with Ron. We had about 45 minutes to kill before things got underway so we checked out the merchandise. 20 minutes later I was the proud owner of a Supernatural tee-shirt (Sam&Dean), the base set of trading cards (What? Of course, I really did need them), a Sam badge, a Dean badge and a Supernatural keyring. Did someone say something about this being a Firefly/Serenity Convention?

First up was the welcome and a screening of the pilot episode of Drive, a series Nathan was in, which lasted all of eight days before Fox yanked it off the air. We missed the ending of the episode because it was soon our time to get our photos taken but considering the series has no ending it was probably for the best.

Nathan and Ron were both lovely. Nathan shook hands and asked everyone's names and introduced himself as 'Nathan'. I'm glad he did because I wasn't sure who he was. ;) I guess it would have been strange if he'd introduced himself as Marmaduke.

Jason Palmer's session was next. Jason is an extremely talented artist who has created some wonderful pieces of Serenity related artwork. I found it interesting he was there, or more to the point, I wondered why he was but as soon as he started talking he was great to listen to. His love and enthusiasm for not only Firefly and Serenity but also the other projects he's worked on came shining through. Seriously, he made me want to go home and crack open a box of crayons and get drawing.

After Jason it was lunch time. We decided to vary our fast food intake and have Hungry Jacks - we'd had McDonalds for breakfast. Robyn and I decided we needed to get kiddy meals because they came with Snoopy toys. Robyn got Lucy in a little pink car and I got Linus in a little yellow car. And we didn't even have to pretend we were under 12. (I probably didn't need to write this paragraph.)

We made it back just in time for Ron Glass. He chatted on for about an hour answering all kinds of questions from how he felt about Book dying (he didn't want to do the movie at first because he didn't want any part in killing off the character) to questions about a soon to be released comic book, A Shepherd's Tale, which came about because Ron felt bad he didn't have any answers to the fan's questions about Book's past. Nathan interrupted at one point to ask Ron who his favourite person on set was. The answer, of course, was, "You Nathan!". After Nathan left the room, Ron admitted Nathan was the one responsible for the wonderful atmosphere on the set of Firelfy and Serenity from day one. :)

After Ron's session they had the charity action and then it was time for Nathan.

I think I may have mentioned Nathan was funny and gorgeous and charming and pretty and just so damn captivating but in case I haven't, Nathan was funny and gorgeous and charming and pretty and just so damn captivating. He spoke at length about Firefly and Serenity, and his time on Buffy. He said he loves working with Joss Whedon and will sign up for anything Joss asked him to do, without knowing what it was, just because whatever Joss does is going to be cool. He spoke affectionately of his time on the daytime soap On Life to Live. There was lots more he said but I think I've forgotten most of it.

One of my favourite parts was when he was telling us about his experience filming Saving Private Ryan. It came up because Nathan had spoken about his love of comedy and how he believes there is room in everything, including tragedy, and Jason Palmer (the artist) asked him about Saving Private Ryan. Nathan spoke about how nervous he was being on set with Tom Hanks and Ted Dansen, and having Steven Spielberg take him aside when he was having trouble 'crying-on-cue', which made him cry a river. :)

Last thing for the day was the autographs. Nathan and Ron were so gracious with their time. Nathan was asking everyone how their photos turned out. He was so sweet.

Thanks Robyn for an awesome day, and making my first Con not at all scary. I'll be all set when J2 come to Australia for a Supernatural Con ;)

NATHAN FILLION

Here's looking at you, kid.

Oh, come on. Seriously?

Unbelievable...

Not only is Nathan pretty and funny but he's quite the artist.

Apparently Nathan draws his inspiration from tattoos...

... tattoos a sailor might have.

And lookit! Here he is doing his best Popeye impersonation.

It's Nautical!Nathan.

This tee-shirt, hand decorated by Nathan, with assistance from Jason Palmer, was auctioned off and in the process raised $400 for charity.