RM con
report pt. 1
B&B Fans Rock the
Rockies at Remember the Magic
by, Rosemarie Salvatore
From the beauty of the
gathered in 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
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
lots of letters and e-mails. He said that
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!
Continued....
Part II
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
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,
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!  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
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.  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
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
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
both tours, I got a very good impression of both the city part and
the beautiful surrounding landscape part of
happy for this chance to visit the