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Sunday
10:30
They're going to throw us out of this hotel in an hour and a half. Got up and showered. Gonzai's already gone, having left for the 9am shuttle to volunteer. Rousted Alison and Dij out of bed and packed up. The question arose as to whether we would be charged extra if we left the bottles, or should we take them out with us. I said, "Well...I'll take all the full ones!" No fool, Jennie.
The two old ladies next door to us got the luggage cart right before I got there, but offered to let us put the cooler on it anyway. Nice! We threw Gonzai's luggage on top, as well, and I loaded up the car. The ladies apparently go to all the Shore Leave conventions, and were all motherly and concerned that I was out in the chilly parking lot without a jacket. Back in the room we gathered the last bits and pieces, and there were several minutes of scrambling trying to find missing convention badges, but we finally checked out and headed straight to the con. No time for breakfast today.
12:45
Dropped Dij off at the door with my gift for Billy and Alison and I went to park and walked to the Sports Complex just at 1:00. Unfortunately, I then remembered this notebook, and I'd rather miss the first 10 minutes then let those back home go without hearing anything, so I handed Alison Gonzai's portfolio and ran all the way back to the car and got my briefcase and ran back. Fortunately, I walked in just as Billy was entering, so I didn't miss anything after all. Whew!
1:10
Again, I'm not going to quite catch everything . . .
Billy was asked about the script he and Dom were writing, and he said it was about 2 British guys (guess who?) who end up running a scuba school in Florida, but knowing nothing about it. They get mixed up with the Mafia, and everything. He says they wanted to sort of explore what they thought was funny. A lot of the things in it were things that actually happened to them, and they'd thought, "Hey, that was really funny! That ought to be in a movie!"
Billy talked about the stage play he'd done last fall, The Ballad of Crazy Paola, and what it was like to work with just one other person. He said it was really wonderful, particularly with the marvelous actress Kath Howden, with whom he'd been working.
He was asked about the scene after Moria where they had to cry, and how he made himself cry. Billy said this was a really good question, and he said sometimes you have to cry for a long time. Many takes, and then lunch, and then more takes. . . This in itself can make you cry! LOL He said he gets music that makes him think of sad things. He takes a portable CD player with him and listens to it on headphones, to think about things that make him sad. Awwww!
A girl asked what his favorite weapon for swordfighting was, listing foil, shortsword, claymore, rapier . . . Billy said, "Here's a girl that really knows her weapons!" He said he liked the shortswords they used in LOTR, and went on to describe claymores and how he'd seen the one used by William Wallace, and how huge it was, about 8 feet long! He coudn't figure out how anyone could use it, other than to just swing the thing and hope for the best!
Someone asked about Pippin's scarf, and how he never seemed to take it off. Billy said it was sort of Pippin's security blanket, and his link back to the shire. Even the scene in Lothlorien where they go to sleep (which will be in the DVD, along with that heart-piercing shot of Pippin looking like he feels he was solely responsible for getting Gandalf killed. Waaaaah!), the scarf is off, but hanging up right beside him. He says even in the last film, when he's all armored up, it's always nearby.
He was asked, "If you could meet anyone living or dead, who would it be?" He mentioned John Lennon, Peter Sellers, and Spike Milligan. Must be a Goon Show fan!!!
Someone asked if he had ever "died" on stage and if that was difficult or affected him in any way. He said that basically it wasn't a problem, and that once you died you could go to the Green Room and relax because you were done!
One of the ladies said, "All the girls here want to know, do you have a girlfriend?" (Well, some of the girls here don't think it's any of our business, but...) Billy said, "No one that's a regular thing, no."
Somebody asked about the Palantir scene, which we'd all been speculating about in the forum, and whether it was going to be in TTT or ROTK. He said that because when they were filming they thought of it as all one movie, he really didn't know which of the two it was in. He agreed that it was Pippin's biggest turning point, because he actually gets to "see" Sauron, and that looking at such evil definitely changes him forever. But he didn't see it as a loss of innocence, more that he was definitely involved now, and not just along for the ride. He said its sets him up for all the Gondorian scenes.
Someone asked about Dame Judy Dench, and Billy said he'd recently seen her in a swimming pool in L.A.
There's some unintelligible scribbling here. I think this is where someone asked him (again) about the tattoo, and he (again) had to say no. Poor guy.
He was asked about his start in theatre, and he said that when he was 10 years old he was the Artful Dodger in Oliver. Once he went on stage, he knew that's what he wanted to do, but between then and the time he was 24 he was just working out how he was going to do it.
Sterlin and Fellowship9 asked him to sing The Bottle Song, and he made a brave attempt at reciting it (it having been a number of months now since he's had to remember the words), and they helped him a bit. Then he invited them to sing it for him, which they did with gusto, and several of the rest of us joined in.
He was asked what instruments he played, and what was his favorite instrument. He said that to call him a musician is stretching things, but he can kind of strum a guitar or bass, and played the drums in a movie once.
A girl asked for a hug for herself, and a friend with Leukemia. Mary the anti-hug Q&A coordinator let this go, obviously because of the circumstances. Billy gave the girl one hug, then dramatically pulled back and paused, and then gave her a second one.
The next person who wanted one got one as well, but then Mary went up and gave firm instructions to everyone in the line that they were not to ask.
Billy was asked about dancing on stage, and he said that he'd had to in one show, and that it was a bit awkward. He had no problem speaking or singing on stage, but he felt a bit self-conscious about dancing in front of people, apparently. Everybody's looking at you!
Someone asked about various height-difference techniques, and he talked a bit about the forced perspective used, and told us about moving forced perspective. His description of a scene of Gandalf and Merry and Pippin right after the fireworks scene, where he's going to make them wash pots and pans, and how the table was at three different levels, with different sized cups and plates, and the camera pans across and you pick up different items based on where the camera was, and . . . He said he had no idea how it all worked, but when you saw it on film it looked exactly right. Amazing! He also jokingly said he suspected that Pete had made them go through all of that as a prank, and really didn't use the shot that way, but shrunk them digitally anyway. Heh.
Billy was asked about what interested him in Far Side of the World (or whatever they're calling it this week), and he said that working with Peter Weir was a big part of it, as he'd done Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, and Picnic at Hanging Rock . . . But it's also set in 1806 on a 3-masted galleon, and he's really looking forward to filming on it. The character, Bonden, is completely different from Pippin in that Pippin was in an unfamiliar setting, not really knowing what was going on, whereas Bonden has spent his whole life on ships and was very much at home. It's also an incredible script, he says.
Then he was asked something about the fact that he was so interactive with us, and so willing to reach out and not be distant and a "star", and he said a lot of things that I just didn't write down because I was listening to him too intently. He said it all boils down to not playing a game, and realizing that we're people with important things to say, too. He's such a great guy.
Someone mentioned the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and how Billy, Dom, and Elijah all wore kilts to go and see it. He said that they had traveled to NZ to do a performance, and the guys were invited to go. Billy wore his kilt and Dom and Elijah hired them (rented) and that Dom, being Dom, also had on a long red wig. LOL! Viggo didn't have anything Scottish, but he wore his Aragorn belt, and they all went along and there was a replica of Edinburgh Castle, which Billy says is absolutely gorgeous if you ever get up to Edinburgh (Take me, Billy!!!!), and that they all ate haggis and drank malt whiskey. Enough so that on the way back they decided to play on a kids' playground and Billy attempted to slide down the slide in his kilt (which was apparently a mistake). "So let that be a lesson to you! Never slide down a slide in a skirt!"
An interesting question on the nature of evil was raised, and Billy said that evil is probably a normal man that pushes himself to get something and doesn't learn from his mistakes. Again, I was listening to this too intently to write it down clearly.
He was asked who was his favorite character in LOTR, and he admitted to a certain bias towards Pippin, obviously. Everybody laughed. He really admired the character of Boromir, too. That he'd had such a hard life with his father not really showing him any love, but wanting so hard to please him. But then he said that off the top of his head, maybe Sam. "Sam's a really beautiful character."
Someone asked him again about the hobbit feet, and what it was like to wear them. He said that they were actually pretty comfortable, with a little give to them, but that they sometimes got very cold if water got in them. He said they tried everything to warm them up (standing on heating pads, putting insulated boots in them [I think he said]), but nothing worked, and in the end they just had to live with it.
Billy talked about the visit to the Star Wars set, and how they were on their way to Thailand, having decided not to go all the way back to the UK on their break. They had found out where Star Wars was filming, and stopped in Australia. He said watching Star Wars was such a part of his growing up, that they were really excited about going. Billy said that when they walked in, the announcement was made, "Hobbits on the set!" They thought this was hilarious and imagined their characters suddenly appearing in the story.
Someone asked him the funniest thing that happened on the set. He said there were lots of funny things, but it was hard to think of just one. He told the story of how Sean Astin, who is married and has a beautiful little girl, is always safety conscious. He was always prone to wondering things like, "What would happen if there was a fire in here? How would we get out?" At one point, they had to use helicopters to get up to the place they were filming, and the guys were playing with the headsets saying stuff like "Bogey at 5:00!" and Sean scolded them that the pilot wouldn't be able to hear with them being silly and goofing with the headsets. So they got off and headed over to the tent to eat, and looked back and there was Sean, directing the helicopters like a traffic cop, "Go this way! Watch out for that!" LOL!!
The subject of pipe smoking was brought up, and how in an interview he had said that he'd become addicted. He was asked if that was true. Billy said that it was actually really cool when they each selected their pipe. He noted that in Star Wars, anyone who got a light saber got to pick which one would be theirs. It was the same with the hobbits and their pipes. "Hmm. Do I want a light one or a dark one? This one's got a really interesting curve to it . . ." So he decided that he should practice smoking it, so that he wouldn't be hacking and coughing through the scenes. He said he got used to it and found himself smoking between takes. Even when he'd go off camera and watch a movie or something, he'd find himself smoking the pipe. So he decided to put it down before it became a more dangerous habit. However, during the filming of the Isengard scene (Presumably this is the bit where in the book Merry and Pippin explain to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli about what had happened with the Ents. I recall a big deal about them all smoking the pipeweed that Saruman had snagged from the Shire somehow. Though I wonder what they'e going to do now with the whole Saruman/Shire thing.), and it took a long time. He and Dom smoked so much that he felt really sick. "It's like when your father catches you with a cigar and makes you smoke 300." Bleah.
He was asked if he'd come back, and he said he'd never been to a convention before, even as an attendant, but had always wanted to. He says he will do it again. (Yaaaaaay!) Maybe he'll bring Dom next time. (Double yaaaay!)
2:00
The Q&A was over, and Billy got off the stage, and Stewart hurried up to him. Now, on Saturday Stewart had instructed me to bring the box of vests to the Q&A on Sunday. So I grabbed the box and started to follow him. However, Billy was immediately mobbed with loons handing him gifts and posing for pictures. Poor Stewart was loaded up with these gifts like a packhorse. Someone gave them a couple of collapsible orange plastic lightsabers, and they did a little impromptu swordfight to everyone's delight, while Stewart said, "You WILL do your diary!!" I put the box down on the stage and dragged out one of the vests to at least show Billy, but I couldn't get anywhere near him. He was sort of swept away by the crowd, and was being pulled towards the door. I wasn't going to get to show it to him. I jammed it back in the box and brought the box to Stewart, who started to say something like he wasn't sure it was going to fit in the car. I don't know what my face looked like, but he took one look at it and grabbed the box. Someone handed Stewart a plastic glow-in-the-dark sword, but his arms were now too full, so I took it from him and threaded it through the loop at the top of his backpack. I said, "Stewart, please email me and tell me if he liked them!" My heart was breaking and I'm afraid my lower lip might have been quivering. I was struggling not to weep in front of him and I think he knew it. He looked me in the eyes and said, "Of course. I'm sorry." He looked for Billy who was almost out the door by now, and said, "I've gotta go catch up to my boy." I waved and he took off. And not before time. I get all blotchy when I cry and I'd have hated to have him see that. I collected my stuff and fled to the front porch to snivel in private.
2:30
Alison, Dij, and Sterlin consoled me, and Sterlin put her blue sparkly hair thingy on my head and gave me some fragrant blossoms from the pink tree next to us.
Sterlin called the Eastern Pavilion to finalize arrangements for dinner, and then her mother to get a ride from the signing to the restaurant. Her mother was insistent that Sterlin be standing outside at a certain time to be picked up, or she'd leave. Sterlin tried to explain to her mother the nature of the autograph line and how there was absolutely no way to predict when we'd get out. They were at an impasse until I offered to drive her over after the signing. There was room for a couple more in my car.
3:00
Someone asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day, and I said only half-jokingly, "I plan to sulk. And you?" It was getting cold, and nobody from my car had eaten anything all day. So I drove Dij and Alison to Stony Brook to find something to eat. I was slightly cheered by Travis' The Invisible Band on the way into town. We found a pizza place and ate there, but decided against using the loo. Have you ever seen Trainspotting? We found THE WORST TOILET IN STONY BROOK!!!!!
4:55
We're sitting in the line for the 5:00 signing, passing out pens and chatting. I'm really only here because I have to drive Gonzai, Dij, Sterlin, and Fellowship9 to the Eastern Pavilion early early early, and we need to be together. I suppose I could get Billy to sign the Photo Guide I've got.
Gonzai's agonizing over which of her smaller items to get Billy to sign. We're only allowed one autograph each, but as she'd been misinformed (or uninformed) yesterday about her rights as a Volunteer to get things signed, she's been given a special dispensation to get two autographs rather than just one. I've decided to get Billy to sign Gonzai's Visual Companion for her, so she can get her artwork done. Still bumming.
5:10
Counted all the "Wee Scarvies" left in the bag. 75! Handed out many of the extras to loons in the line. I still have a number I can mail out to people, though.
We've all decided that we're converts to the beard now, but are resigned to its inevitable loss. Most of us looooooove the tousled hair, too. We love how he runs his fingers through it.
Somebody ahead of me said they wished they had a sign which said "Stewart" that they could hold up. I jokingly passed up the printout of his bmg smiley, and they held it up for a minute until I made them stop. I didn't want to embarrass him. [According to Hobbit Kitty, who was up there talking to him, I was too late in this. Sorry Stewart!]
I've set aside 5 of the extra scarvies to give Billy to take home. Don't know what he's going to do with them, but if anyone should have a handful, it should be him. There are still 24 left in the bag.
6:19
Woo hooo!!! Billy loved the vests! (For those who don't know, they're black with the White Tree and Stars on the left chest. They're fully reversible, with fleece on one side and a microfiber fabric on the other. [If I say "vests", the UK/Aussie/etc. folks are going to think tank tops. They're really sorta sleeveless jackets. One of the UK ladies called them "bodywarmers", if that helps.] I gave him one small, two mediums, two larges, and two XLs. But I kept one for myself. ::blush:: )
The group of us who will be in my car had been allowed to go up near the front of the line. (We got to go right after the last of the people who had rainchecks from yesterday.) I left my vest on the floor back where we'd been sitting, and suddenly remembered it and was going back for it just as Alison ran up and shoved it into my arms. She insistently said, "Show it to him!" I'd dragged my feet, but when I walked up he recognized me and said "Hi!" I gave him the extra scarvies, and he said, "Thanks! I could almost make a real one now!" I laughed and said, "Yeah, or you could . . . use them to dry the spaces between your toes!" He laughed. I had him sign Gonzai's book as she was having him do her artwork, and then took a deep breath and showed him the vest draped over my arm and said, "I don't know if you got a chance to look at these . . ." He immediately said, "Those are from you??? I love them! They're brilliant!" ::dies:: I pointed to mine and said, "This is the only other one. You have the lot. The full run." He said, "You know, one for me and one for Stewart would have been enough. You didn't have to do all that!" I said, "I know. Well, if you can't think of anyone in the whole world who might want to own such a thing [but far be it from me to tell Billy Boyd what to do with his stuff!] you could always use them to . . . wax your car, dust your furniture . . . They'd probably even make decent tea towels. [In the meantime, I've thought of another use! Bath mats! Fleece side up on the floor of the bathroom, they'd be lovely to step out of the shower on. Keep yer toes nice n warm!] He laughed and thanked me. I said goodbye, and he said, "See you again."
So we went over to see Stewart, who immediately came over to me and said, "He loved them!" I said, "He said! Thank you, Stewart!" Sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet man! He seems to have felt bad and wanted to make sure I knew how much Billy had appreciated them. We tried to get a picture of him with his bmg smiley, but he refused, saying, "I'm not holding up bits of that rubbish!" and flung it aside. LOL! But he did pose for pictures before shooing us away so he wouldn't get in trouble for holding up the line.
Suddenly remembering Gonzai behind me, I hurried back and snatched up her camera in time to take a pic of Billy holding up her huge color picture of Pippin (on the black background). She then gave him the Electric Blue Pippin and a black sketch of Billy, and said she didn't know which to get him to sign. He said, "So we'll do both!" And he did. I took more pics.
So we went over to Stewart and took a picture of him with Gonzai, and then I gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He said he didn't know what they were going to do later, but they might drop by the dinner. I imagine they're pretty wiped out though. Or will be by the end of the signing.
So we all met up outside and headed over to the parking lot, considerably cheered. I called hubby and told him how much Billy had liked the vests, and Gonzai was practically skipping along with glee at how Billy had recognized her from the night before and asked if all the beautiful sketches in the fanbook were hers. She'd said that the first five were and the rest were from a FanArt list that she moderated, and people had sent them in to be included, along with letters. She'd told him that her Gandalf had won 2nd place in the Fan Club art competition, and that the URL was in the fanbook if he wanted to see it. He said he wanted to check it out! He'd been really impressed and she was walking on air.
I drove Gonzai, Dij, Sterlin, and F9 over to the Eastern Pavilion, which is also in Stony Brook. Sterlin told them who she was, and they led us upstairs to the room reserved for us, and wondered at all the pink and purple balloons decorating the place. Upstairs there was a big banner draped across the ceiling which said, "Holy Communion". We asked about it, and they confusedly made sure we were who we said we were. I was the one who figured out what had happened, and laughed, "No, it's a Convention! Not Communion!" The man said, "Oh! Take down! Take down!" and the waiters yanked it down before we could stop them. That would have been hilarious!
Fellowship9 said she'd gone online the night before into CheeseChat and mailed out 20-30 digital pics from the con to the people who were in there, and told them lots and lots that had happened, before finally logging off to crawl off to bed very very late.
People are arriving and settling into groups to chat. A number of little "threads" of conversation again, so I'm still chuckling about that. There are about 35 people here, it looks like. There's a stereo in the corner of the room that the staff doesn't even seem to know contains a CD player. Gonzai had to go over and explain it to them, and we commandeered it and slammed it full of Travis, Weezer, Badly Drawn Boy, and Divine Comedy.
7:30
Hubby phoned to say they were home from Grandma's. Hung up and he rung right back because Tibby had found out Mommy was on the phone and had wailed. So I discussed her day with her. She misses me terribly, and I miss her. Awww!
Tea, wonton soup, spring rolls, and tiny fragments of sparerib were offered, and they charged us extra for sodas. $1.50. How petty. Hmph.
Gonzai's telling her story of the nice people who drove her to the con this morning. She'd been over the road in McDonalds getting breakfast at 9 when the shuttle was supposed to be in front of the hotel, and asked someone else in a Volunteer T-shirt if they knew when the shuttle would arrive. Turned out they were artists, too. They offered to drive her over, and everybody passed around portfolios on the way. They'd dropped her off at the front door, and she wishes she'd been able to thank them more properly, but never got to the room they were volunteering in. Whoever you are, Gonzai says thanks!
8:17
Beef with Broccoli was a really small plate, and one guy at our table took about half the meat. Hmph. The Lo Mein was pretty much just noodles. You'd have to have sophisticated detection equipment and a lot of patience to actually find the tiny strips of pork embedded in it. The two chicken dishes were barely indistinguishable from each other.
There's another guy at our table with short brown hair and glasses, who Sterlin insists looks just like Harry Potter. So she's drawing a lightning bolt on his forehead. Gonzai took a picture.
National Express just started on the stereo and I joked about my arse being the size of a small country (if you don't get this, never mind). The pagans in the room decide to try to use the song to "invoke" Billy into appearing, but the only one who came up the stairs was a waiter bringing Sterlin's ginger ale. So we all ran out to the parking lot [carpark] to "invoke the ginger ale" hoping that this would then conjure Billy somehow. Yeah, okay. We were getting admittedly silly. But it got sillier. We attempted to "invoke the Scottishness that is Billy and Stewart" by screaming, "Sweet Jesus, I'm feart!" also with no result. Ah well. I went in, leaving them to attempt to flag down cars to see if they contained Scots. When they returned they reported that they'd been doing jigs on the side of the road. Glad I wasn't there.
Maybe it's a good thing Billy and Stewart didn't show, as the food was a bit disappointing. It's a shame we weren't able to get sushi or something (which they also have here), but I guess this is just the menu they do for groups.
8:50
The North Carolina, West Virginia, and Michigan contingents have left with many hugs distributed and photographs taken. Even some of the locals are leaving now. We're going to split soon as well. It's been so nice to meet everybody. We may not even stay for our Green Tea Ice Cream. Well, maybe a little. It's actually pretty good.
9:00
Minor incident with the staff. Sterlin handed over the wad of cash everyone had chipped in, and the guy said she was short by five people. She argued that there were five people who had left without eating for one reason or another (illness, schedule conflicts, etc.), but that they shouldn't have to pay as they hadn't eaten dinner! The guy said they had, and there was a moment of panic for Sterlin until I went into the room and suggested a whip-round to make up the difference. This was done quickly and the guy took off. Trust the loons to take care of each other.
9:15
Alison, Dij, Gonzai, and I head out to find a Starbucks. We coffee up and get back to Alison's car. Dij is going to ride with Alison to keep her awake, and Gonzai with me, so there's some luggage shifting to do. I find an Amoco and gas up and we're off! Mmmmm. Venti White Chocolate Mocha. A definite necessity, as we're looking at a 5-6 hour drive. We head out at precisely 10.
On the way back, Gonzai navigates again, and Dij and I converse by phone a few times to make sure we're all still alive and on the road and awake. Gonzai and I take turns choosing the music. Hers sounds mostly like noise to me at this point, but she's chattering away as well, which keeps me awake. Tolls, tolls, and more tolls. We grab snackies at an all-night rest stop [transport cafe] and have some boring Roy Rodgers coffee for lack of anything better. I usually only drink frou-frou coffees, but it was about 2am. ::blink blink::
3:00
We meet up with Alison and Dij at Gonzai's house, and the remaining luggage shifting and unloading occurs. Many hugs are distributed, and we plan to go out and do things together. I head home and gratefully slam some screeling folk music into my CD player now that I can! I crawled safely into my beddie-bye next to my slumbering hubby at precisely 4am.
The next day, after 3 1/2 hours of sleep, I'll spend the day (with the assistance of another Venti White Chocolate Mocha) typing up two days worth of this diary and mailing a couple more Wee Scarvies off (the total mailed is 38 now).
I hope this diary has made those of you who couldn't go feel as though you had. It's the best I could do.
Love, Jennie
P.S. Click on the "Fellowship of the Wee Scarvies" page for current stats on "membership."
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