Thawing out at Chiller

I'll admit I'm not quite sure which way to go with this particular blog. Should I detail how to crush on an 88-year-old in one easy lesson? Maybe I should recommend meeting people you might be on the fence about when working out your game plan. I can probably leave out the claim that they host Chiller in April and October so that there will always be a chill in the air while you're waiting on line outside.

The October event wasn't quite as jam-packed as in years past, you could actually make your way through the corridors with little trouble, and save the headliner, nobody's line seemed to be too much of a wait. In fact, if it wasn't for the presence of Tim Curry, the latest event might have been overly tame. But the Rocky Horror Picture Show star brought fans in in droves. The longest wait of the night for most of us was excitedly queuing up on the photo op line for our 30-second brush with the man, the myth.

The other crown jewel was Martin Landau. The man is 88 years old, but he seemed sharper than any of the rest of us. I was tickled just watching him check his cell phone. And then again when the gentleman in front of me informed the Oscar winner that he had just had a birthday -- he turned 72. Landau then quipped, "You're just a kid."

I'm a big fan of his work -- starting with the brilliant suspense thriller North by Northwest and on to Tucker: The Man And His Dream, the movie I expected him to win the Oscar for before he finally did with his dazzling turn as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. 

But first and foremost, I wanted to talk with Landau about the 1998 X-Files film. I wasn't sure what to expect, that was made almost two decades ago and maybe he wouldn't remember much about what some consider an unrewarding part. (Don't count me in that number, please.) But Landau had a lot of great things to say on the subject.

Chris Carter told Landau he was the only person he could envision playing Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil. The X-Files creator didn't have much of a character outline beyond a general description that he needed to seem sane and insane. The beleaguered doctor delivered a lot of exposition in the film, basically getting Mulder to go on wild goose chases. "I created a character out of nothing, so it was great fun," he said.

Even Mark was gobsmacked -- his word -- at being in the classy octogenarian's presence. After taking my photo with Landau, the actor looked at it and pronounced it to be "perfect." I couldn't agree more.

The first thing I had him autograph was my comprehensive X-Files book, the one that I bring to almost every convention getting anyone connected to the show to sign. He said, "You're a big X-Files fan, aren't you?" I said "Oh yes," proudly pointing out my Fight the Future shirt I wore in his honor. "Yes, I saw that," he replied. That tiny little logo on the left side? I wouldn't have noticed it myself if I didn't know it was there.

There was a little post-it note his handler put on the book with my name on it for ease of signing. When I reached for that as Landau went to sign my Fight the Future lobby card, he indicated he didn't need it, he knew my name. Again, I was giggly fan girl ... "Martin Landau knows my name."

Upon departing, he offered his hand to shake. I told him I thought North by Northwest was a perfect movie. He responded with a gracious thank you and gave my hand an extra squeeze in the process. If ever there was a reason not to wash a hand ever again, that was it.

I got to talk X-Files again with James Remar. And I was on the fence about approaching him, because he's mentioned but not pictured in the comprehensive book. Boy, I was so glad I did.  "The X-Files saved my life," he said plaintively. He perused the book very closely, reading every word about his episode, "Daemonicus." He recalled the title and his character very distinctly.

Remar had spent the summer of 2001 in New York City, riding Ladder Company 3's truck with friend Patrick Brown. He got a phone call from the show days before 9/11 telling him "he must come do this." He signed on, and a couple of days later, the towers fell. Ladder Company 3 lost most of its men, including Brown, in the attack. Remar showed me a cell-phone picture of his hand on his friend's name at the memorial. It really got to Mark and me.

It was quite emotional and might have been overwhelming if we didn't then get into our latest round of what's the right way to take a picture next. Blog readers might remember Tatum O'Neal -- who by chance was positioned at the same table Remar was this particular weekend -- urging Mark to shoot tilted down from above. Then Malcolm McDowell negated that concept, saying eye level was the way to go. Remar agreed with McDowell and Mark. Boys 2, Tatum 1.

I also was on the fence about meeting Eddie Deezen, perhaps best known from Grease, The Polar Express or WarGames, but on my list because of Midnight Madness. I showed him a pic of myself and Sestra cosplaying the movie's Game Control girls at New York Comic Con. As he signed my DVD cover, he said that film was a really fun one.

Funnily enough, Deezen later posted on Facebook that he was surprised that the project most fans talked about him at Chiller was -- Midnight Madness. Surely the Game Control girls would have gone over huge at this event. No one knew who we were at the "other" convention.

I also met Marsha Warfield. I'll just say she was subdued, compared with the others. I was complimentary as I could be, admitting that when I'm feeling overloaded by work sometimes Night Court is my only remedy. My biggest response came when I asked her whether she wanted to "stick her hand in Bull" -- the puppet I brought for the picture. "No way," she said. Besides the picture and Warfield adding her Jane Hancock to my favorite Night Court script, there was one other little thing I wanted to ask of her. Now mind you, this was her first convention and I believe I was her first customer, so she might have been understandably thrown by my request that we act out one of my favorite Night Court lines. But ultimately, she was game.

So with the camera on, "Roz" said, "What's that behind your back?" and I reply (in my best Larroquette "Dan" impresssion, which admittedly isn't a real good one) "New Jersey." And then I quickly quipped, "It really is New Jersey" and got a thumbs-up.

All of that was accomplished during the early-bird hour, so the only thing left was to wait on a couple lines for my Tim Curry photo op. About an hour later, I was sitting next to the Tim Curry! I babbled something about how much I appreciated his work, he replied -- in a voice clearly affected by his stroke but still with that same familiar warm British tone -- that meant a lot to him and offered his hand for a shake.

And then bubblehead that I am, I totally forgot my prepared line. Back when Clue was released, I actually went to different theaters to see the three different endings. They weren't all tacked on like they now can be seen on the DVD, you had to figure out which place was showing which ending. But in place of that, I offered the horrific, "Are you having a good time?" I shudder just thinking of it now. I composed myself, we took the picture, I wished him a fine weekend and off I went, hanging my head in disgrace. But not for long, because when I think back on the Chillers, this will rank as one of my favorites.

Twice as much Tedeschi Trucks Band

It was great fun to experience Tedeschi Trucks Band's Beacon residency this year from two different angles.

I went with Mark to the opening show Friday, then with my cousin, Jill, and her daughter, Kristen, on Tuesday. As usual, Mark and I recognized songs two or three notes into the piece, while Jill and Kristen sat back and enjoyed the musicality of performers at the top of their respective games.

The Friday show opener was Amy Ray, perhaps best known as half of the Indigo Girls, but working her "country project" to full advantage. It was an energetic set capped off by the appearance of Susan Tedeschi for the final two songs -- a cover of the Indigo Girls' "Share the Moon" and a tribute to the co-founding member of the Allman Brothers Band entitled "Duane Allman."

Friday setlist: Don’t Know What It Means; Keep On Growing; It Ain’t Easy; Laugh About It; Right On Time; Get Out Of My Life, Woman; Isn’t It A Pity; I Want More; Soul Sacrifice; Within You Without You; Just As Strange; How Blue Can You Get?; Don’t Drift Away; Sticks & Stones; Had To Cry Today. Encore: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (with Amy Ray) 



Park still refers to the Tedeschi Trucks Band as "Soul Stew," the moniker they used when Derek Trucks and wife Susan Tedeschi first started combining forces on the road together. They've always provided a hearty meal for the senses.

I was particularly thrilled to get Derek and the Dominos' "Keep on Growing" and Blind Faith's "Had to Cry Today" on Friday's setlist. Now mind you, as a purist, I wouldn't just accept any old act covering treasures from two of my five favorite albums of all time. You've got to have A+ game, which Tedeschi Trucks Band always delivers.



It was also a thrill to hear "Isn't It a Pity," which now not only reminds me of the song's author, George Harrison, but also of Billy Preston, who did such a bang-up job combining with Eric Clapton on that tune at the tribute concert for George.

Derek's just my favorite guitar on the planet. I've been watching him since he was 13, and I still marvel at the fact he seems to continue to get better every time despite already being on top of his game. This show featured a lot of echoes of his self-titled band with such Derek Trucks Band standards as "Get Out of My Life, Woman" and the Nina Simone cover, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free." Mike Mattison took the lead several times, including on the former and the Howlin' Wolf cover "I've Been Abused."

Although there wasn't spoken reference to Derek's other other band, the Allman Brothers during the TTB set, he did get people's eyes bulging out of our collective heads by donning what looked to be Duane Allman's Goldtop Les Paul for a searing cover of Santana's "Soul Sacrifice."

Rest assured, Susan found it pretty easy to carve out some space front and center. Paying tribute to B.B. King, who once made Johnny Moore's "How Blue Can You Get?" his own, Tedeschi did the same by scorching vocally and with the guitar (in B.B. style) until the house was on our collective feet.



The second night featured Dave Mason, who opened with a set that included a lot of Traffic staples, with varying degrees of success. Taking a different tack with "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" made it stand out over such fare as "Dear Mr. Fantasy," in which the absence of Steve Winwood was more keenly felt. But as expected, the virtuoso guitarist was at his best working the strings of his instrument. I rued the fact that "Only You Know and I Know" was done without Tedeschi's powerhouse vocals, but Jill was kinda thrilled to hear "We Just Disagree." And then we were given a reminder that he has played with all of the notable names of his era with his set closer, "All Along the Watchtower" -- he played acoustic guitar on Jimi Hendrix's legendary cover of soon-to-be Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan's song.

Tuesday's setlist: Goin' Down to Mexico, Let Me Get By, Laugh About It, Bird on the Wire, Just as Strange, Idle Wind, Bitches Brew, Color of the Blues, Don't Know What It Means, Get What You Deserve, I Cannot Make It, That Did It, I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free, I Want More, Soul Sacrifice. Encore: Night Time Is the Right Time, Feelin' Alright (with Dave Mason).
 
A few overlaps from my first night here, but the overriding takeaway was that the former Derek Trucks Band vibe is becoming more ever-present in the current Tedeschi Trucks Band incarnation. And that's not a bad thing, just an observation. Mike Mattison actually started the show on lead vocals with the ZZ Top cover "Goin' Down to Mexico" before coming out of the back row for the likes of "Get What You Deserve" and "I Wish I Knew How to Be Free." The Miles Davis cover "Bitches Brew" also reminded me of Derek's previous band in that the jazzy element was always a fret away.

Jill and Kristen seemed to get into the show right away. And it doesn't hurt when the upbeat nature of "Let Me Get By" gives way to a glorious cover of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire." Tedeschi Trucks Band ran the full gamut -- pulse-pounding rockers to thoughtful ballads without dropping a beat. There were moments when I could tell my relatives were blown away -- or they have seriously good poker faces.

One of the highlights of the set came with just Tedeschi, Mattison and Alecia Chakour clustered together for George Jones' "Color of the Blues." We heard tell that Susan guests on that number on John Prine's new duet album. If it's half as good as it was delivered that night, that will be worth the price of a download.



Duane's Gold Top made its way to the stage again for "Soul Sacrifice." Hey, who wouldn't play that any chance they got? Derek delivered another masterful sequence of solos to cap the set. And although, I could watch/listen to him do that forever, he was gracious enough to let Eric Krasno have much of the time and space on the Sly and the Family Stone cover "I Cannot Make It."

Susan again grabbed the guitar spotlight, tearing the house down during the Bobby "Blue" Bland tune "That Did It." I was exhausted after she finished knocking that one out and was glad that she could "take it easy" for the next couple of numbers after that. She probably didn't need to, but I think I did. If we've said it once, we've said it 100 times -- how fair is it that she's got that powerful singing voice and then this supreme talent for scorching the guitar on top of it?



The encores were fun -- first the horn section got to work it out on Ray Charles' "Night Time is the Right Time" and then Dave Mason (and his keyboard player Tony Patler) came out for "Feelin' Alright." Yeah, we were feelin' no pain after that one. Except for the thought of having to wait another year for the next Beacon residency.

Don't judge New York-Comic Con by its cover

I didn't think New York Comic Con 2016 set up well for me at all. Boy was I wrong.

My wariness was based of the initial celebrity guest list, which didn't feature the allure of last year's screening and panel for The X-Files as well as the appearance of longtime favorite John Larroquette. But as I found out, NYCC clearly has more to offer than just those actors making themselves available for panels, photos and signings.

Sestra and I worked up very specialized costumes for Day 1 -- so specialized that no one seemed to get our drift. We were Candy and Sunshine from the 1980 flick Midnight Madness -- perhaps best known as Michael J. Fox's first feature film. Obscure, to be sure, but we would have thought some of the tens of thousands would be geeky enough to pick up on the reference. Oh well, I think we still looked pretty sharp.

Without the need to be in the door at 10 a.m. sharp to get into the long queue for main stage panels, we strolled in after the doors opened and the huge throngs were already inside. I was immediately besieged by people giving away free stuff -- books and buttons and even a foam chainsaw. Nice, that's the way the con should work, for sure. (While walking to the Javitz Center, we got one of our best freebies -- a survival hygiene kit promoting the Hulu show Freakish with such con necessities as hand sanitizer and tissues).

One of the actors I was really looking forward to meeting was J. August Richards -- best known to the Sestras as Gunn from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff Angel. Expected him to be as tall as he was, but definitely did not expect him to be as cool as he was with us.

He alluded to our matching outfits, but he didn't know the movie. Still, when Lor told him we needed a Leon to be the Game Master, he willingly agreed. Now normally that might be considered to be lip service, forgotten the minute we paid, got our picture and moved on, but I saw J. August later that afternoon at a hilarious gaming panel (the object was for players to throw each other off girders or onto subway tracks where death was swift and merciless). When I told him he did a good job as he exited, he stopped and pointed and yelled "Leon!" I was like, "Yes!!" I was suitably impressed.

The next day we started with the Falling Water panel, which gave us an intriguing look at a new USA series spearheaded by Blake Masters and executive produced by Gale Anne Hurd. In the show, a trio of strangers realize they're dreaming parts of the same dream together. Stars Lizzie Brochere, Will Yun Lee and Zak Orth were on hand with Dr. Moran Cerf, who detailed the science behind the science fiction.

Sestra and I were definitely living the same dream when we saw Mike Massimino at the Penguin Random House booth. Lor knows the astronaut best from The Big Bang Theory, in which he had a recurring -- and funny -- role as himself.

Now it's one thing to meet people who have entertained me, but quite another to be talking to (and squatting beside) someone who has blasted off and walked in space. I was almost speechless. Except for the word "Astronaut," that is. I just kept exclaiming that over and over.

We both bought a copy of his book, Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe. Sestra's was personalized to "Fruit Loops," a joke from Big Bang Theory that made her happy and gave me material for the rest of the weekend. Have to give big kudos to Massimino for the visceral way in which he described every aspect of space missions, even before the big rocket blasts into the sky -- far better than just watching a documentary on the subject.

I was much more grounded when meeting Jonathan Maberry, author of the upcoming X-Files Origins novel Devils Advocate. We got our posters signed, but even better, Sestra implanted the idea of interviewing skeptical Maberry -- and possibly believer Kami Garcia, who wrote the Agent of Chaos coming out at the same time in January 2017 for our Sibling Cinema blog. 

Another of my planned events for the weekend was my photo op with Carrie Fisher.  Never got on one line for an hour only to be put on another one for another hour. And I'm always amazed that all of us can wait like that and not show any wear and tear when we get face to face with the celeb. She made the photographer hold -- they shoot these things as fast as humanly possible, herding us in and out -- but she made sure she was comfortable and I was comfortable and that we had a firm grip on each other without my hair in the way before giving the OK to click. Her dog, Gary, had his tongue stuck out at us from his perch on a neighboring chair.

A couple things I enjoyed more than usual were the cosplayers, even taking pictures with some of them. There was Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street and a couple of sharks (Tiburones!) Everyone who has tuned into Doctor Who at some point or another in its decades of existence has his or her own doctor, and mine is No. 9 -- Christopher Eccleston played the role for one year. His cosplayer was sharp indeed, I don't remember having previously seen one that good.

We finally got some props for our own attire on the final day as we wore our spanking-new Sestra shirts. For those not in the know, we started calling each other "Sestra" by following clone Helena's lead on Orphan Black and then commandeered that for our Sibling Cinema blog. Basically the comments consisted of "Hey, Orphan Black! Nice shirts!" We definitely should work up business cards for next year.

Had two items on my agenda for the final day -- the screening/panel for Eric Kripke's new show Timeless and another thing I didn't know about until perusing the NYCC schedule of events -- Hannibal show runner Bryan Fuller (the brilliant mind also behind Pushing Daisies and other cult fare for people like me) signing a new cookbook released with Janice Poon, who helped create the show's somehow mouth-watering dishes.

Like Falling Water, Timeless looks like a show to take a chance on. We saw the second episode before Kripke and cast Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett and Goran Višnjić came out to talk about it. The episode reminded me a lot of the Supernatural episode in which Nicholas Lea played Eliot Ness, not surprising since Timeless is another Kripke production. The show seems to have a lot of opportunities to traverse time as the scientist, the soldier and the professor board their machine to key moments in history. Actually, now it kind of sounds like Quantum Leap too.

We had no problem getting into that panel, which saved the bigger question for later. I headed right to the Titans booth for the Fuller signing that was over an hour away, just to hear that the line was already capped off. That came as very disheartening news not only to myself, but to two others who had been told they wouldn't even be starting to form that line before that time.

The three of us hung together and hovered outside the capped line -- even though we were told we couldn't block booths in the process. I'm here to tell you, dozens lined up behind us. We waited the hour and the woman with the cutoff sign kept sounding like the voice of doom, but we did ultimately get the proverbial golden tickets to buy books and get on line. Was funny spending all that time trying to look inconspicuous and like we weren't trying to listen in on conversations any time the guy in charge came over to the one holding us back.

I spent 15 minutes watching the swatch of Fuller's amazing technicolor dreamcoat I could spy from behind him. And also partaking in a new obsession. I'm not a fan of the Pop! Funko figures that don't look much like the characters they're supposed to be, but I quickly got into the X-Files Titans, plastic mini figures from different shows that they've craftily put into mystery boxes so you don't know what you'll get. The Titans booth traded figures on display for duplicates, so that's how Sestra scored me Scully in place of less-appealing villainess Phyllis Paddock. They had Hannibal ones as well, the chase variants will get you every time, right in the wallet.

When we finally got up to our Hannibal friends, I told Janice that all her work on the show always made me hungry and I didn't really care whether that was wrong or not. And then, finally, I was in front of Bryan Fuller. It was amusing that we had been told the two of them wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, but it was a booth employee that brusquely tried to move us along while they tried to listen to what we had to say. I did manage to blurt out that I've always found Fuller's creative vision to be unique and inspirational.

After we continued along the show floor, into terrains we don't usually get to while hopscotching through panels and autograph or photo op lines, Sestra found me a cool -- and rather dangerous -- booth with a wide array of art related to Wes Anderson movies. I could have happily gone broke in there, but settled for a few packages of magnets and a killer story about how the director showed up at his gallery one day. Not only did he get to show off his collection, but then Anderson brought up his friend, Jason -- Jason Schwartzman, of course. A fine tale for me to pin on to this year's Comic Con.