I
From the beauty of the Green Mountain
state last year, B&B fans gathered in the Rocky Mountain State this year for
Remember the Magic. Early Friday morning, since the con wasn’t
starting until 3pm, a group of us went to visit Celestial Seasonings. Their
factory smells wonderful and it was very interesting to see how the tea is
made. Even better for me, was the small art gallery they have of all their
packaging art. Their gift shop was wonderful too with so many great gift
ideas featuring the beautiful package images. I couldn’t help but tell the
cashier how much I love their artwork and when I said I especially like the
lion she said that I must be with the Beauty & the Beast group. We had lunch
in the Celestial Seasonings Café and then headed back to the hotel for opening
ceremonies.
The Con Charity was Food Bank of the
Rockies and we saw a video to learn more about them and what they do. There
was a large box for non-perishable food donations near the Registration table
and as the weekend went on it really filled up. Some people brought their
items from home and others went across to the Wal-Mart to buy them right then
and there.
Friday evening activities included
some getting to know you games and lovely songs by Julie Bain. Then there was
a break to change into our pajamas. There was popcorn and other goodies to
eat during the triple feature Slumber Party. The highlight was seeing a 1983
pilot for a TV series called “Wishman” that starred Linda Hamilton. She was
good and looked beautiful, but the quality of the writing was not there and we
could understand why it was not picked up! Still, it was right up her alley,
dealing with a child sized science experiment that was not expected to live.
It did and they were going to kill it until one scientist (Linda’s character’s
husband) develops a guilty conscience and kidnaps it to save it. The make up
on the creature was bizarre – a long way from the high tech effects of today.
But this was a very special and unexpected treat. We then watched
“Temptation” followed by a Rocky Horror-like viewing of “Dark Spirit.”
Saturday started for me with the Fan
Projects panel. Joan S., J’Ecris, Deb, JoAnn, Chan and I each discussed one
on-going fan project. It was very exciting to see that we had a good turn out
and people seemed to be interested in all of the projects.
Also on Saturday, Deb gave a panel
called “Power Point for Terrified Beginners,” which seemed perfect for me. She
took us through how she does her slide shows and made it seem much easier than
I thought it was. For the past three years Deb’s slide shows have been a
highlight of the cons and this year she added music videos to the mix!
Throughout the weekend we saw a total of five new videos set to the following
songs: “Lullaby,” by the Dixie Chicks; “I Need This,” by Natalie
Merchant; “Someone Like Me,” (from Jeckal & Hyde) by Linda Eder and
Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and “Seasons of Wither.”
The Wither video was extremely unique - it focused on scenes from TRIS
as Vincent struggles with his Dark Side. But rather than being downer, I
really enjoyed it. It think this was because the mood and tone of the rock
song truly fit the scenes and do a great job of expressing the feelings the
scenes evoke.
Karen Q and Judy L surprised me by
asking if I would help them by filling in for Maranda who didn’t make it to
the con this year. The three of them have a long standing tradition of
matching costumes and an accompanying skit. This year it was Sebastian’s
Magical Bunnies. So I was honored to be the third bunny (Flopsy, Mopsy &
Cotton Tail) and we performed the skit just before the Q & A.
Lee Holdridge was signing autographs
right before the Q&A and I got in just in time to get my Of Love & Hope
CD signed by him - I told him to just ignore the bunny costume – and he was
very sweet and gracious and even took a photo with me.
Lee took the stage first and I really
enjoyed listening to his stories because they are from a unique perspective:
the music side of things. He had written down the story of how he came to do
the music for B&B and read it to us so that he wouldn’t forget anything. Then
talked about his background and the music business in general. He seems to
want to help us get the DVDs made. He said that now that we know who owns B&B,
he is going to get us the names of the people at Paramount in charge of the
DVD division and told us to send them lots of letters and e-mails. He said
that Paramount is strong in the DVD area and with the 20th
Anniversary coming up next year; we may have a very good chance of getting it
done!! Lee also played the B&B music for us and Julie sang “The First Time
I Loved Forever.” Jay came out and Lee and Jay shared the stage for a
while – even asking each other questions. Then Lee left and Jay finished out
the afternoon. There was a group of “Stargate” fans present in full costume
to see Jay. That was really fun to see!
On Saturday night the banquet hall was
beautiful. The tables were strewn with rose petals and each centerpiece was
different. Ours was a garden trellis type ornament with roses woven through
it and a place for a votive candle. A table near us had a beautiful rocking
horse with a sweet clown on top. As I look around I also caught glimpses of
various arrangements of cute teddy bears and roses.
We started with a moment of silence to
remember Nan Dibble and Trisha Kehoe. There was a lovely poem read in tribute
to them. It was about a child who had such creative flair that she colored
objects in any color she pleased. She was reprimanded by her teacher for
wildly colored ducks and eventually began coloring all her ducks a plain,
boring brown. I could relate to this story very much and I think the point was
that Nan and Trisha were always unique individuals and never colored their
ducks brown.
The opening lines of Winterfest were
read by Jay and we had the Candlelighting ceremony. The food was good and our
table was a lot of fun. We saw The Kiss video, Deb showed her “Joe’s
Fantasy” slideshow with Jay present, and Julie finished the evening by
singing Disney’s Beauty and the Beast theme song quite beautifully.
After the banquet some of the larger
auction items went up for bit with Jay’s help. The big item was a Winterfest
candle from the set. It came with a very moving letter from TPTB saying how
the future of the show was uncertain and they appreciated the fans’ support.
There was also a New York City Subway poster advertising the show. I really
wanted the poster but it went out of my price range really fast!!
On Sunday morning there was a Tunnel
Tea. Deb and I were registered for it but then realized that the writer’s
workshop was at the same time. We were really torn about what to do. Since
we both want to write stories we went to the workshop. However, when we
mentioned that we were missing the Tea for it, Janet (aka Kay Simon)
graciously ordered us to the Tea and said we could come back later and finish
our stories. It turned out to be a good thing that she did. The tea was
wonderful. Everything was set up so beautifully – the food, the tea pots, and
the tables. Everyone got a china tea cup to take home. They served us each a
huge plate of food. It was all the traditional food that I’ve heard of but
never tried. Some of my favorite menu items were Mary’s cucumber sandwiches,
crumpets with butter and lemon curd, Devonshire splits with strawberry
preserves and Devonshire cream, Father’s oatmeal scones, Catherine’s chocolate
covered strawberries and Vincent’s Favorite chocolate cake. There were two
kinds of hot and one kind of iced tea. Our hostesses really knew their
stuff. They gave us tips on brewing tea and in general had really put
together a classy event. Right before it ended, we enjoyed taking still life
photos of the beautiful tea paraphernalia. Then Deb and I went back to the
writer’s workshop and were grateful to have some one on one time with Janet
and our stories.
After that, there were more art and
charity items to be auctioned off. There were many items donated by ABC and I
got some Lost items for my sister who is a big fan of that show. ABC
soaps were represented by some All My Children items. It didn’t seem
like there was too much interest in them and a comment was made that there
must not be too many soap fans in the crowd. However, I have, in the last
year, become a huge fan of ABC’s One Life to Live and I spent the whole
time wishing there had been some OLTL items. I guess I would have been the
only one bidding and would have easily gotten them at a good price!
J
I did get a DVD of “Daytimes Greatest Weddings” which includes some
OLTL moments. I also bid on and got one of three beautiful handmade books by
Sandy Tew. At this time, there was a Scrapbooking workshop going on that I
was sorry to have to miss.
There was a “Remember the Magic” hour
in which fans talked about favorite con memories and at the very end of that
hour I read some poetry that reminded me of V&C by a favorite poet of mine,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Then came the closing ceremonies and one order of
business to take care of. A while back I put a message on the lists at the
request of Brooke Rodriguez of the Carousel & Caverns group. Brooke is still
holding the money collected years ago to try and get Ron P. a star on the Walk
of Fame. Since getting that star is now out of reach, she had wanted to give
the money to charity. But since it was not her money, she didn’t feel that
she had the right to make such a decision on her own. To our surprise,
however, there was no response/discussion to my message and, as a result, I
didn’t know what to tell her. When she heard about my idea for a Bench in
Central Park dedicated to B&B, she felt that would be a good use of the money,
but still felt that her hands were tied. She didn’t want to cause any hard
feelings in Fandom and I sympathized because I wouldn’t want to do that
either. But after presenting this dilemma at the Closing Ceremonies everyone
voted that it would be an acceptable use of the money. So between Brooke’s
Star money and the checks that I collected at the con, we are already more
than half way there!! Brooke and I are really excited about this and I really
hope that this is a good sign that the bench will become a reality! (Please
consider contributing even just a small amount to this project if you haven’t
already done so).
The Candle was passed to the Carousel
and Caverns Community for 2007. Then the con was officially over - but there
was still a lot of fun to be had in various hotel room parties and on the
Monday morning Mountain Parks bus trip. On that trip, we went to the Red
Rocks Amphitheater – an outdoor auditorium where the acoustics are excellent.
The surrounding natural rock formations were amazing too. After that we went
to Buffalo Bill’s gravesite. In the café I tasted a buffalo burger. On the
way there we passed a little shop in the mountains called the “Crystal
Rose.” It was a wedding shop – I was puzzled as to why one would be
placed in such a remote location - but here were a lot of oohs and ahhs from
the bus as someone pointed out the sign. The bus driver didn’t know what had
happened. He said we nearly gave him a heart attack as he thought it might
have been a wild animal we were seeing.
J
The bus also took us on a winding mountain road where the views looking down
were literally breathtaking!
On Tuesday, Deb, Cyndi and I did the
Denver City tour and I enjoyed that too. We saw the beautiful Molly Brown
house and had fun shopping in the Victorian gift shop. We took lots of
pictures of the beautiful white horse statue high a top the Denver Broncos
stadium. Near the entrance below, there was also an amazing sculpture of
seven galloping back stallions. It was really a first for me to consider
anything sports related an actual highlight of the tour! We visited the
majestic capitol building, where on the front steps there is a gold medallion
marking the official 1 mile (5,280ft) above sea level. There is also a
building in the city that they call the Giant Mailbox because of its shape.
So now I will be able to recognize the Denver skyline in pictures. Between
both tours, I got a very good impression of both the city part and the
beautiful surrounding landscape part of Denver. I was very happy for this
chance to visit the Mile High City!!
