Lucius Malfoy, Weird Al, and Fluffy Little Bunnies

November 2nd is a great time to blog about summer, I say!

The beginning of my summer wasn't the greatest. My grandma passed away. We had a memorial. I did a lot of things to help with the service, including writing the obit and the info. for the program, writing a bio speech for my brother to present at the service, and preparing a display for the reception. And I miss her.

But summer went on, and I had a pretty good one. Aside from going to Alaska and California, I had some fun adventures close to home as well.

In July, I dog-sat in Eugene, OR, and spent an afternoon at the Lane County Fair...

One of my favorite things was the exhibit on objects found with metal detectors...

As someone who has thus far only unearthed crowbars, rusty nails, and a singular dime with my metal detector, I was impressed.

Of course, I spent lots of time with the animals...

And I observed, but did not go on any rides...

* * *

In August, I attended a Weird Al Yankovic concert at McMenamics Edgefield.

I'd actually bought the ticket back in 2018, and the concert eventually sold out.

I chose to purchase one of the "chair" seats (rather than sit on a picnic blanket on the massive lawn). On one hand, this afforded me a pretty good view of the stage. But as the chairs were packed so tightly together, this arrangement was a little bit uncomfortable.

The show began with three orchestral numbers from movie soundtracks. Then Al got up and did about a dozen numbers. It was a fun show and I'm glad I went. Next time, though, I'll just chance it with a picnic blanket...

* * *

In September, I attended the Rose City ComicCon...

The LEGO club I'm a part of has put on a display for several years, and I joined in...

Since three actors from The Princess Bride were going to be in attendance this year, I thought it only right to make a couple of PB-themed MOCs...

I also made a few new BrickHeadz, representing the Harry Potter universe actors who were scheduled to be there: Bonnie Wright (Ginny), Matthew Lewis (Neville), Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski), and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy).

 Bonnie Wright ended up canceling, but I let her BrickHeadz come anyway.

The crowds at the con were enormous this year...

I went to three panels. One was a split panel, with actors from The Princess Bride. First off was Wallace Shawn....

Then Cary Elwes and Chris Sarandon...

Later, there was a panel for three aforementioned Harry Potter universe actors in attendance...

I also attended a panel with just Jason Isaacs on Sunday. I was pleased that in both sessions, he briefly talked about Peter Pan (2003), a movie that's close to my heart. Apparently he's quite fond of it, too.

 Some of things he mentioned:

*The film was mostly shot in Australia. He got to stay in a large house by the beach that was supposed to be for an A-list actor doing another movie, but that actor backed out, and Jason got to move in with his wife and baby daughter. They invited the Lost Boys over to hang out.

*During the course of filming, several people on the beach were attacked by sharks, but the Australian crew members kept assuring Jason that it was perfectly safe to swim in the ocean. After the third attack, Jason decided to stay out of the water.

*The production went over-budget and the shoot went longer than anticipated. Jason didn't seem to mind this, as he got to continue living in this mansion by the shore.

*The reason Hook and Peter have their final battle while flying was to help disguise the fact that Jeremy Sumpter had grown so much during the course of filming, and was now nearly as tall as Hook. (I already knew they'd had to adjust the size of the Darlings' nursery window to accommodate his growth.)

*The harnesses used for flying were uncomfortable, sure, but in one scene, they were really uncomfortable. There's a particular look of pain/horror on Jason's face for a brief moment that remains in the film... in which he wasn't acting.

*That first scene with Hook was actually a body double. (Nooooo!)

Good movie, by the way.

Portland Comic Con!!

The weekend before last, I decided to check out the first-ever Portland Comic (Wizard) Con. For years Portland has had comic book shows, but those are humble little affairs where they may get a handful of comic book artists, and maybe a D-List actor if it's a good year. Wizard Con was something entirely else. It was a gathering of all good things related to... well, pretty much everything remotely geek. Video games, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, television, movies, superheroes, retro cartoons, action figures, I don't even know. And it was HUGE. Thousands upon thousands of Portlanders crammed into the Convention Center. I don't know how.

But if we're being completely honest, my friend Jenn and I had but one purpose for showing up. And that was this:

Dean Cain, who we may or may not have (read: may have) been crushing on since our early teens.

Now, I wouldn't have minded meeting Drusilla, er, Juliet Landau, but she had to cancel a few weeks beforehand. And Bruce Campbell is awesome, buuut I've met him before -- and his line was insane. James Marsters -- sure, he's cool. But Wizard Con is very much a for-profit enterprise. If you want to get up close to any of the celebs, you have to pay for an autograph ($40 and up per celeb), a Polaroid photo (about the same), or a professional photo ($50 and up). That's even to just go up and talk to them!

Thanks to Jenn, who wanted both an autograph and a photo, we got to talk to Dean Cain!

 AND we got to get a photo with him in which he put his arms around us! ::SIGH::

 And then he did a Q&A panel, in which I asked a question, and he answered it, and he totally looked right at me like omg.

FANGIRL MOMENT!!!!1

Suffice it to say, we had an EXCELLENT time, and were so happy and excited. The following weekend, we had a Lois & Clark marathon and squee-ed some more. So, you know, good times.

Of course, since the Portland Wizard Con was exactly one week before the Emerald City Comic Con, and there was no way I could do two cons in a row like that, I missed out on my chance to meet Prince Humperdinck, Miss Havisham, Christopher Lloyd and Patrick StewarON THE OTHER HAND MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE GONE.... okay, now I'm depressed. 

Okay, all better now. :-D

Molly Goes To The Emerald City Comic Con

In March (dang, I can't even say "last month" because it took me so long to write this post) my friend Gretchen and I drove up to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Con. Or, to be more specific, we drove up for the showing of BACK TO THE FUTURE LEA THOMPSON IN PERSON! And maybe some Comic Con on the side.

See, what'd I tell you?

So BTTF is one of my favorite movies. There was a time when I was actually quite obsessed with it. This is no longer the case, but I was still excited to go to this showing. For two reasons. One, of course, was Lea Thompson.

The other reason was Deloreans!

I kid you not, someone had arranged for a parade of twenty-some Deloreans to drive by. It was CRAZY! Crazy cool, that is.

After the Deloreans went by and Lea Thompson entered the building, several hundred of us then packed into the theater, listened to some Lea Thompson Q&A, applauded for participants in a costume contest, and watched the movie. The sound and picture quality were incredible, I just have to say. And it's always great seeing BTTF with a crowd. People cheer during the awesome scenes (all 232152 of them) and it just feels kinda special.

That was on Saturday, March 31.

On Sunday, we decided to brave "Day 3" of the Comic Con.

Now, this particular Comic Con boasted hundreds of vendors and dozens of comic book artists, actors, and voiceover artists. There were panels with actors from Star Trek and Firefly and all kinds of other things. But I have to say I was most impressed and excited by...

LEGO!

 Oh, beautiful bricks. I love you.

Okay, so there were some other points of interest, too, such as the Weasley Twins.

In the scandal of the decade, they DO NOT ACTUALLY HAVE RED HAIR.

We listed to three panels in all: the Weasleys, and two folks from Firefly, including Adam Baldwin, who will forever be The Guy From Poison Ivy, except maybe now it'll have to be The Guy From Poison Ivy And That One Episode Of Castle.

There were a lot of interesting things for sale in the vendor room, but both Gretchen and I left with very little. I bought 3 Lego minifigures and she bought a Dr. Who poster. But hey, at least our pocketbooks appreciated it!

All in all we spent about four hours at the convention. It was hardly worth the price, but I'm glad we went because, you know, it was cool. And I can add a handful of new names to my list of Actors I've Met In Real Life. (Because everyone cares.)

Also, right outside the convention center was THIS PLACE:

This place ROCKS! Wonderful, delicious crepes... you make it all worthwhile!