Regressing back to childhood

Chiller Theatre is great at bringing in faces who really impacted me in my formative years. The most recent April show seemed to place a premium on that. There was a Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew, one of Charlie's Angels, a Bosom Buddy and Angie. And that was just for starters.

Our first stop this year was Parker Stevenson. I met him seven years ago at one of the first ones I went to. In fact, it was so early in the tenure that it was before Sis started forsaking some of her shopping time to foster her own collection. As such, she's been waiting for another chance to get a picture with him for quite a while.

I mentioned the initial meeting to him, then asked how he's been in the seven years since. His answer was thoughtful and heartening. "Really good," Stevenson said. "There aren't many times in your life when everything is good. Something always happens."

The first time I met him, I brought my Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries Season 2 box set to be signed. I had Season 1 with me this time. I also took the other one, because Pamela Sue Martin had put her Pamela Sue Hancock on the inaugural season and I wanted to get her PSH on the second one. Problem was, I was so giddy that I gave him Season 2 ... again. He looked down at it, then up at me, then showed it to me with an "I already signed this" look. Quick rummage through my backpack required.

Lor got what I call the "O face" from him when she unveiled the photo she had brought to be autographed, from his 1993 TV movie, Official Denial. She also mentioned another favorite of both of ours, This House Possessed. "You really like the sci-fi stuff, don't you?" Parker asked. He hit the nail on the head.

Pamela Sue wasn't there yet, so we set out to look for more actors who were there for the early-bird session. With all different celebrities stretched out down hallways throughout the Hilton Parsippany, we meandered down corridors and went into a room with Piper Laurie. The three-time Oscar nominee looked lovely seated at her table, but it was tough for the soft-spoken actress to hear what I was saying with the hustling and bustling in the room.

Speaking of hustling, I mentioned one of my favorites of hers, The Hustler. She said she had gotten to see a beautiful remastered print not too long ago on the big screen where it belonged. I brought my Carrie Blu-ray to get signed and asked whether she had any inkling when they were making it that it would become a cult classic.

"I hadn't worked in 15 years," Laurie said. "I had no idea it would be so big. It was just a small (budget) movie that we did for a few weeks." I asked whether she kept her distance from Sissy Spacek to keep the tension between them and she told me a sweet story about the last day of shooting. "It wasn't that long of a shoot and we were focused on the work," she explained. "I went into her dressing room and she was playing her guitar. She played with my dog."

Faux pas, number two, I accidentally stepped on her leg when I went behind the table to have my picture taken with her. Can't take me anywhere. But it was a good thing I was around to help Sis when she met George Wyner (Spaceballs). The affable Colonel Sanderz mock-fired his handler twice while we were there. And the second time might have been warranted since the helper couldn't take a decent picture of Lor and George. I actually was able to help out on this occasion.

The person I was most looking forward to seeing was Peter Scolari, whose career I have followed since Bosom Buddies. I always rooted for Scolari's Henry, even over Tom Hanks' Kip. I'm glad they're still buddies. It was his first pop-culture convention and I made him giggle when I admitted I was a total "Henry-phile" who wanted his character to find true love. "Yes, he was a good guy," Peter said.

We talked about the high-school reunion episode from the second season. Henry had regrets about having forsaken a deaf girl to go to the prom with someone else. He meets up with Sheila again at the reunion and makes amends. It was a poignant episode for a show that started off in slapstick comedy territory. Scolari gave special praise to Nanci Kendall, the deaf actress whose work made it so great.

I have Peter's name in Tivo, and shows and movies of his are always popping up. I asked whether there are things on his filmography that he'd forgotten about ever making. "Definitely," he said. "There are things that are unavailable at all." God bless Tivo.

Scolari called me "sweet" for saying that I was most excited to see him. Personally, I think he was sweet himself for putting up with my fawning and rubbing my back while we were taking our picture.

There was a whole group of actors from Saturday Night Fever, including Karen Lynn Gorney. The one I was most excited to see was Donna Pescow. And not because of Saturday Night Fever. I loved her show, Angie, which only lasted two years on ABC.

Pescow admitted making the show -- with Robert Hays, Doris Roberts and Debralee Scott -- was so special and the cast stayed in touch long after it ended. We talked about a particular episode in which the families played each other on Family Feud. Then the cast of Angie went on the actual game show after that. "I remember that!" she exclaimed.

When we went back to Pamela Sue Martin, she told me about how she moved to Mexico because she couldn't handle Colorado winters any more. I mentioned we had already talked with Stevenson and how much fun that was and she said, "Parker is someone who makes everyone happy," Pamela Sue said. We talked about why the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries still hold up all these years later and Frank and Nancy's chaste romance. "There was an innocence about it. It was a different time," she said.

Even though she's retired from the business, Martin said she was asked to make an appearance in the pilot for the latest adaptation of Nancy Drew on the CW. "It's a little edgier ... they have dead bodies in theirs ... but I said, yeah sure. It's the one thing about the business that I look back fondly at." And I did hand her the right box set, at least.

I was with Sis at director Jack Sholder's table when another Oscar nominee (and winner!) got bumped by a Schector, but this one wasn't me. Lor was trying to take her backpack off, and in her defense, Lee Grant was far, far away from her own table in the middle of the room when it happened. I uttered a quick "Sorry, Lee!"

After sharing Martin-Landau-was-a-superior-human-being stories with Sholder, I went to get a selfie with Grant, still holding court away from her table. She misheard me when I said my name as "Peach," and then I quickly added. "I'll be a 'Peach' for you if you want!"

We talked for a bit about one of my favorites, Defending Your Life, which she described as "an incredible experience." Grant looked over at her table banner, with credits such as In the Heat of the Night, Voyage of the Damned, Mulholland Drive and her Academy Award-winning turn on Shampoo on it. "I was so lucky to be in this body of work," Lee said. I probably started shaking my head as soon as she did. "This is not just luck, this is you being talented," I replied.

Then it was time for me to go on the long lines -- first for Cheryl Ladd of Charlie's Angels. I had a special task in mind, getting an autograph for a good friend of mine. But the in-person photo would be all mine. After, ummm, let's say 90 minutes, I finally got up to her, only to find I didn't have enough dinero for the transaction. Luckily, my buddy Eric and his mom were not too far behind me and he spotted me the difference until I could hit the ATM.

Cheryl had an amazing setup -- she was seated behind a little table with a lighted mirror and her own photographer handling the picture-taking duties. I asked her how she was holding up, she said she was doing well and thanked me for waiting on the long line. She signed the photo I brought for my buddy, from "one of Normie's Angels." We took one picture and then both she and her camera man talked me into taking off my glasses for a second attempt. I grumbled something about the bags under my eyes, and she assured me the special magnifying light would take care of it. They were right, of course.

Since I had replenished the coffers, I jumped on to neighboring Jason Priestley's line. This was the most rushed I felt all night. He had a photo shoot scheduled in 15 minutes, but his handlers just kept taking money and items to be signed and shoveling them at the teen idol-turned-director. Priestley kept taking his time with the people he was talking with. I appreciate that, even though I was a wee bit concerned that the entourage would waltz off with my cash/DVD at any moment. (One of my favorite moments was when the guy who had taken the DVD came back a couple minutes later and asked what I wanted to have signed. The thing I just gave you, perhaps?)

But Jason seemingly was oblivious to it all. And when it was my turn and he looked down at my Cherish DVD cover, a smile crossed his face. "I don't see a lot of this one," he said. Priestley called the experience of being in the black comedy "super fun," adding that he filmed his portion during a week off from another movie and got to use his own dog for a montage in the film. Even though, he was pressed for time and was getting the move-along, I got an extra hand squeeze before I left.

And that's the way it went at this Chiller. Everyone was so nice. Not that they usually aren't, it's just that there's often an actor or two who seems like they're practicing their craft when making polite conversation (and taking money). But the conversations this time were much more casual and fun. So I'm definitely looking forward to the 30th anniversary shows coming up for the next two Chillers.

The curative powers of music

The Park Manor Vortex of Chaos suffered a crushing blow over the Thanksgiving weekend. Our beloved Cody Husky passed, and to say we felt out of sorts is a major understatement. Cody was the center of our universe. He was always with us on trips, from my dream vacation to Devils Tower to just running the mail to the post office. (The picture below just came up on my Facebook timeline today. He was always nearby, touching my table leg was just an extension of me.)

So it was with heavy hearts that Mark and I went to two shows that we already had tickets for in December. Where we once had been looking forward to them, now they were more of a chore. But we went, and we were glad for doing so both times, even though we still weren't exactly 100 percent into them.

The first was Lindsey Buckingham at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, New Jersey, on Dec. 1, an intimate venue where we hadn't been to before. Our tickets included the meet-and-greet, and there probably weren't two sadder sacks on the line, but we were making the efforts.

After over three decades of fandom for me and one for Mark, it was really nice to meet the man behind the music. We're firmly #teamLindsey in the senseless Fleetwood Mac feud. A little back story for me, I first saw Fleetwood Mac in 1987 in the friendly confines of the University of South Florida Sun Dome right after Lindsey recorded the Tango in the Night album and left the group before the tour. Two guitarists can't cover the ground that he did, but eventually the Mac found their way back together again. The more recent split seems ridiculous to me in the extreme, but we will take a pair of tickets to see Lindsey over the current Fleetwood Mac cover band any and every day. I do recognize the group as being very malleable and open to change since its inception as a blues band, but I was hoping they again would work it out before they're not around to do so.



But back to the meet and greet. Lindsey was soft-spoken and kind when we stepped up to him. I showed him my Lindsey ring from the '70s -- frequent readers of the blog will recall that I have all five rings from that incarnation and I wear whichever one or ones of the members I'm going to see that particular day. I said something like, "I bet you haven't seen many of these. I wear it every time I see you." After watching him interested in what the people who had gone before us were saying and doing, I wasn't surprised he seemed genuinely touched at the sentiment.

I gave way to Mark, adding that I introduced him to Lindsey's music 10 years ago. "That's why I keep her around," Mark quipped. Lindsey put his hands together and said a profound "thank you" before we had our picture taken together. I don't recall anything else except that his jacket felt very soft.

Nothing is left to chance at a Lindsey show. He even picks the perfect opening act. J.S. Ondara, a singer/songwriter from Nairobi, kept the crowd engaged with lines like "Here's another song you don't know" while belting out a wide array of folk tunes and supplementing them perfectly with his guitar. The man who taught himself English by listening to Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain is well worth your attention when he comes your way in support of his new album, Tales of America.

Setlist: Don't Look Down, Go Insane, Surrender the Rain, Not Too Late, Doing What I Can, Trouble, I Must Go, Street of Dreams, Shut Us Down, Never Going Back Again, Big Love, Slow Dancing, Soul Drifter, Holiday Road, Tusk, I'm So Afraid, Go Your Own Way. Encore: Turn It On, Down on Rodeo, Treason. Lindsey also was touring for a new release, the painstakingly crafted (seriously, would you expect anything else?) Solo Anthology. A lot of the songs in the show hadn't been in his arsenal in years -- aka "Holiday Road," which was so much fun, and "Soul Drifter" (my personal favorite) and some had never approached live (i.e. "Slow Dancing"). Lindsey told the audience he was surprised at his visceral reaction to putting together the anthology, and he found it cohered from the start of his solo career to where he was at that moment.



"I'm someone who likes to look ahead instead of behind me ... that served me well this year," he said. With Lindsey looking so comfortable in his own skin and with his own band (including our personal favorite, the versatile keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Brett Tuggle), I couldn't begrudge him wanting to avoid the soap opera and continue on in the same vein. So I really won't be heartbroken if Fleetwood Mac isn't reconstructed. (Although I could definitely take more of the Buckingham McVie project.) When Lindsey sang "I've been down one time ... I've been down two times ... I've been down three times ... I'm never going back again," that's kind of the way I wanted it to stay.

"Never Going Back Again" and the show-capping "Treason" were so emotional, working on so many different levels -- hearkening back to his early days while covering the sentiments that freshly arose from the break with Fleetwood Mac. There's no doubt, he's still got it.

Setlist: Set 1: Broke Down on the Brazos, Tributary Jam, Banks of the Deep End, Rocking Horse, Fool's Moon, Railroad Boy, When the World Gets Small, Bad Little Doggie, Blind Man in the Dark, Hear My Train a Comin', Bring on the Music. Set 2: Traveling Tune, Highway Star, Silver Train, Wiser Time, Two Trains, Trane, Tuesday's Gone/Auld Lang Syne, Casey Jones, Stop That Train, Runnin' Down a Dream, End of the Line, Seven Turns, Ramblin' Man, Locomotive Breath, Roadhouse Blues, Train Kept a-Rollin', Travelin' Man, Beautiful Loser. Encore: Crossroader, Drums, Freeway Jam, It Takes a Lot to Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry, Key to the Highway. We capped the month ... and the year at the annual Gov't Mule Beacon Theater residency. This year's theme for the second set was traveling songs (especially those of the train variety) and we got more than our money's worth as the tuneage continued long after the midnight countdown and the dropped balloons had been popped.



We were in the strangest collection of people about a dozen rows from the front door down the left side in the orchestra, anchored by a dinosaur in front of us who had a cane but seemed miraculously healed enough to do some scooting dance moves. One person in our row got nabbed for allegedly "firing up," but it was revealed at one intermission that the woman sitting directly in front of him was the real culprit. A man walked down the aisle to shake everyone's hands after midnight, and three different people around us lost things, using the light from their phones to try to find them at inconvenient times. And, of course, can't go to a Beacon show without having people behind you scream about sitting down. They weren't spring chickens, their last rock show might have been Woodstock. Although the man later was heard to say, "I've never seen so much hustle and bustle," so maybe he wasn't down on the Yasgur farm.

One thing I will never fault will be the concert goers getting up to dance, but even they were a little ... different in our surroundings. During one jam, a guy in front of us was doing some kind of variation on an "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" dance while the faux Moby next to me executed his impression of a boogeying grave digger.



But the music was right on, man. Even if we weren't standing and swaying the whole time like we usually do, it was washing over us in a good way. Particularly when the Allman Brothers' "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" was teased during "When the World Gets Small," and during the not-often-played Allmans gem "Seven Turns." I found the Allman's "End of the Line" a little jarring without the late, great Gregg Allman's vocals, but "Seven Turns" was near perfection.

The energy stayed up with a lot of first-time Gov't Mule offerings, including Jimi Hendrix's "Hear My Train A-Comin', Deep Purple's "Highway Star," The Rolling Stones' "Silver Train," The Black Crowes' "Wiser Time" (recalling my Black Crowes-obsessive days), Little Feat's "Two Trains," Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone," The Grateful Dead's "Casey Jones," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Runnin' Down a Dream," The Allmans' "Ramblin' Man," Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath" and Bob Seger's "Travelin' Man" and "Beautiful Loser."



For the encore, Corky Laing joined the fray and Warren Haynes cited the drummer's group, Mountain, as part of the initial inspiration for Gov't Mule. Laing's "Drums" and the 30-minute "Freeway Jam" seemed a little ill-advised at the end of a five-hour show, but it's a minor quibble from another show for the ages. One that we sorely needed.

Checking back into 'General Hospital'

Longtime General Hospital fans wish the network and its sponsors understood how important seeing veteran actors and familiar characters are to them. The actors seem to know, though. So the Nov. 10 GH Legends event at the FairBridge Hotel and Conference Center in East Hanover, New Jersey, was your basic lovefest. Fans got to fawn all over their favorites and the favorites showed how much the support from the fan base means to them to this day.

I hadn't been been to one of the GH Fantasy Events before, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. The first thing I found out was the actors don't mind parceling out hugs. And they're good huggers. Ian Buchanan (Duke) was my first. It might have helped a tad that Liz Reilly told me to say "hi" to one of her favorite men in the world, but I kinda think I would have gotten the hug anyway.

There was kind of a gameplan going in, though. I hoped to ask for some brief interviews with Ian, Tristan Rogers (Robert) and Emma Samms (Holly) to use on my podcast for Sean and Tiffany's 30th anniversary. Mind you, I didn't know how the event worked and it quickly became evident that I wouldn't be able to get that done -- especially since the Legends were booked somewhere else for the night after the afternoon event.

Ian, Tristan and Emma said they were on board for the podcast, although ultimately Tristan was the only one I was able to wrangle for it. (The holiday season is a pretty tough time of the year to try to get that done.) Still, it was particularly sweet that Emma made sure the business card I whipped up with all the information was tucked away with her belongings. Then I was free to talk with them about being a longtime fan of theirs. When Ian was signing a photo of him with Kimberly McCullough (Robin), Beulah Quo (Olin) and John Reilly (Sean), Tristan leaned over and asked what year it was from. I responded it was from the John's 1995 farewell luncheon.

Then Tristan perused the Complete General Hospital Scrapbook I brought to get signed by the attendees, and he told me a great (albeit painful) story about having a broken foot during one of the location shoots. The show painted his cast black and still had him scale a mountain for one scene.



After fawning all over Emma and thanking her for being part of the video get-well card the online community contributed to for Sharon Wyatt (Tiffany) a few years back, the two of us waited for Tristan to do a photo. He was reading a caption in the book and Emma leaned over and asked about it. The platinum ticket was good for three autographs and a picture with each actor (such a deal!), but I accidentally beat the system and wound up with four from Emma, because I later saw she signed that page of the book too. I think I made Tristan laugh by giddily quipping, "Robert and Holly! Suck it, Anna!" during our photo.

I talked with Emma about her very first scene on the show, when Holly was skinny dipping in a lake and Luke Spencer happened upon her. "It was freeeeezing and there were fish in there too," she recalled. I also had a scrapbook page with four of her Soap Opera Digest covers on it and when she pointed out her favorite, I asked her to sign that particular one.
Over on the other side of the room, Kin Shriner (Scott) was holding court, kind of a bit away from the actual signing table. He was talking with the mother and daughter ahead of me on line about how his trip to the event was massively delayed, but that the flight attendants all watched soaps and treated them very well.

One of the things I had for him to sign was my treasured photo of Kin with Sharon. They were both dressed to the nines. "Are we holding hands?" he asked. "We never dated. ... We were good buddies." I was rearranging my photos and preparing for the next actors, when I looked up, straight into the face of Jackie Zeman (Bobbie). "Sorry, Jackie, I didn't know you were there," I said shyly.

The next person in line was the only actor I had met before, Brad Maule (Tony). We talked about the General Hospital Fan Club luncheon he played guitar at in 1997 at the Sportsmen's Lodge.

And the last -- but certainly not least -- was Lynn Herring (Lucy). Mom and daughter were still ahead of me and having a really animated conversation with Lynn when they got the move-along. So they wrapped it up and Lynn and I talked about the pink dresses in the photo I had for her, and how Sharon wasn't dressed in pink. She laughed that Sharon always went her own way and was so much fun. I also had a photo of her with Kin looking sideways, and Lynn quipped that she looked like she always did around him, borderline exasperated, as if to say, "Kin, what did you do now?"

So she finished signing for me and looked around and asked where the photographer, adding "Don't we have to move this line along?" Lynn almost cackled with glee. "Yes, Paige, I love it, that's driving me crazy," she said, clearly unhappy that she didn't have enough time in the day to finish conversations with people she was having fun talking with. I told her I learned how to be sassy from her and Sharon. The handler might have gotten the last laugh, though. That was the one photo that I didn't double-check after it was taken, and it wound up being a blurry one.

After a break, Kin came on board to emcee the Q&A. "We got a lot of actors backstage," he said. "I don't really care for any of them." He brought out longtime buddy Billy Warlock (A.J.) and they told stories of being long-time neighbors. Billy often beat Kin at basketball and pool and Kin would come over like Seinfeld's Kramer and take things out of Billy's refrigerator.

Then he introduced Lynn -- "Costello to my Abbott." She apologized for anything he would say ahead of time. And they were about to continue the banter when Ian appeared from the back and told Kin to move it along, because all the other actors were freezing in the back. They came out en masse, with Tristan adding, "It was like waiting for the tide to come in."



Kin made Emma blush furiously by repeating something she told him in the '80s: "I wouldn't go near you or touch you if you were the last man in the world." And his humor was "Kin-tagious." Ian got a lot of laughs for quipping, "We don't look bad for being in our '80s."

Billy Warlock (A.J.), who works as a ski instructor in Telluride, Colorado, was asked whether he gets recognized. He told us how Jason Bateman -- someone he knew from the actor's earliest years on Silver Spoons -- was there with his kids and spent the whole day staring at him, even though he had a nametag on. Billy said eventually he just went up to him and said, "Yeah, it's me."

Brad impressed the assembled by revealing he's a lecturer at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nagodoches, Texas. "All they did (on GH) was try to kill me every year," he laughed, before telling us about one of his favorite moments. "I was in a coma ... like normal. Jack Wagner was behind me and had a whole monologue. But the whole time, he had his finger in my ear. The director comes out and was like, 'Jack, that was brilliant, it's like Tony's coming back to life.'"

I thought one of the better questions of the afternoon was when the panel was asked how their kids have responded to seeing their parents' work. But both Emma and Tristan said their children haven't been interested in any of that. "They've never watched me in anything I've ever done," Emma said. "I want them to see me just as a mum."

Speaking of the dynamic duo, would they ever consider going back to put a cap on the Robert and Holly story? Tristan didn't really seem in favor of that idea. "They're a bunch of hacks," he said. "They're going to screw it up. I'd rather let it hang."

Since the event, Tristan has been recalled to GH for more shows. When veteran actors return during the sweeps' rating period, Kin calls them "Pop-Tarts." Ian didn't seem so willing to go back again, adding he's already been through "three generations of young people behaving badly and being rewarded for it."

Jackie and Brad were rightfully praised for the amazing story of BJ's death back in 1994. Jackie explained how the actress, Brighton Hertford, had been the show since she was just weeks old and it was difficult to let her go. But everyone's melancholia turned to laughter when Jackie repeated what Brighton said after the director called "cut" for her last shot. "Thank goodness! Everyone's dripping on me and I'm all wet!"

And the kudos continued to be doled out for that storyline, specifically when Maxie got BJ's heart. Brad's still amazed that people at every event always bring that up.   

Speaking of such surprises, Emma didn't realize until much later that coming on as Luke's love interest could have been rough on her, particularly after attempts to pair him up with Demi Moore (Jackie) and Janine Turner (Laura) went up in smoke.  "Luckily the audience were kind to me and more accepting. I wasn't fully aware. I didn't know Luke and Laura were on the cover of Newsweek. I think that helped. ... But it wasn't until Robert and Holly got together that they really got behind the character." And then she added that she went through something similar on Dynasty after replacing Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon.

I wasn't going to ask a question, mainly because I hadn't slept the previous night before attending the event, but I wound up doing so anyway: "Was there anyone you wanted to work with more who you didn't?"

Tristan said no, adding Robert was getting Luke's castoffs and his job with Holly initially was to "keep her warm until Luke came back. We did something that hadn't been done in daytime before. They liked to be with each other, that's why the relationship turned out to be as interesting as it was. A lot of affection was added, it wasn't in the original script."

Ian didn't have trouble picking someone, going for three-time Emmy winner Maura West (Ava), and Kin heartily concurred.

If you know anything about Tristan beyond who he's portrayed on TV, you know he doesn't mince words -- whether or not he's on the show. He's mightily disappointed in how the show doesn't care about catering to the audience that spends money on what's being advertised. "The average age of people buying their product is 50. The sponsor doesn't understand that," he said. "I want the entire writing staff fired. We need a head writer ... who understands balance. The veterans laid the balance for the show and now we are flushed away, fuck that. ... As you can tell, I'm not looking for a job."

Times have certainly changed. According to Jackie, the show films two or three shows a day now. "It sounds like fun. I'm so sorry I'm not doing this anymore," Billy said sardonically. "Ten pounds of shit into a five-pound bag. In the '80s, we had proper rehearsal. It was the best time."

Speaking of that, what were the legends' favorite location shoots? Ian chose Mount Rushmore -- and in years of chatting with Liz Reilly, I've come to understand why. As fun as that one was, Tristan never understood why it was necessary. "In that era, about every month we did a location shoot," he said, adding that the fabled San Antonio locale was his favorite. "Tony Geary and I were at our best. We never could top that one in terms of outrageous behavior and pure fun." One night they did a rain dance at the piano in the hotel ... "and the next day, Gloria Monty stomps in and starts kicking me. 'You wanted rain? You and your fucking rain dance!'"

Not that fellow actors didn't try to top them in the ensuing years. Lynn said Sam Behrens (Jake) and Jack Wagner (Frisco) attempted to during her first location shoot. And Kin and Anders Hove (Faison), in turn, tried to give them a run for their money in the behavior department the night before Serena's birth was to be filmed.

Tristan admitted he passed on doing Dancing with the Stars because it was too much work. "I decided it wasn't for me," he added. Ian quickly chimed in, "I wasn't asked, but I also decided it wasn't for me."

When one admirer said those assembled on the stage are the show's constant, Emma responded the fans really are the constant. Before the cast took photos with the platinum and VIP ticket holders in attendance, they conducted an auction with all kinds of unique Legends opportunities. When the actors came back on for one last picture and Emmy took a picture of the crowd, I called up, "That's $200, Emma!" She pointed at me and chuckled with appreciation.



I waited for my turn for a picture with the cast, asked Emma if I could lock arms with her and then kidded Ian for not resting his hand on my shoulder as he had with many of the others. I was just teasing, but he stopped the proceedings and called for another photo to be taken in which he did leave his fingerprints on my person.

It may be many years since I've watched the current incarnation of General Hospital, but meeting these people from the good old days will always remind me of planting myself in front of the television set every weekday at 3 p.m. I could never have dreamed of spending quality time with them and having them be so wonderful to boot.

The 'Little Shop' that could

I first saw Little Shop of Horrors during its original film run. A couple times actually, sneaking designer cupcakes into a movie house near the University of South Florida.

And I'll admit, I got very attached to the Hollywood version, which basically totally changed the ending of the off-Broadway show -- both in content and tone. I understand why the test audiences didn't want Seymour and Audrey to die just after they had finally happiness with each other.

But I also appreciate the original director's cut, which was officially culled together in 2012 from unearthed bits and pieces of film from the vault. It's closer to the story concocted for the theater by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, which in turn, is what Roger Corman strived for in the original 1960 black comedy. Having Audrey II burst through the screen at the end of the modern-day version plays like a stroke of genius. That should be experienced on a huge screen to be properly enjoyed.

So to come full circle and see the movie the way director Frank Oz planned it to be seemed perfect. Sitting in the second row for a Q&A with Oz afterward would be like having a designer cupcake with me, and less fattening. So naturally, I had to make my way to the Schimmel Center at Pace University on Oct. 30 for the opportunity of a Little Shop fan's lifetime.

First we watched the film. So much fun to applaud at the titles and at the end of each main song. (I mouthed  the lyrics to every single one, obviously). The audience, most of whom probably weren't alive when the film was originally released, enjoyed every laugh -- particularly when Bill Murray arrived on the scene as the patient who enjoys dental procedures a wee bit too much. Everything he did and said got huge belly laughs. Also of note: They didn't seem to recognize Christopher Guest when he made a cameo as the first customer to see Audrey II.

Oz came out soon after the lights came up -- and it's startling to think about how much he's affected pop culture above and beyond this film. From Sesame Street to Yoda, he's long been apart of several generations' childhoods. But even the greatest don't always get their way, like when The Geffen Company called for a different ending to the movie. "No one wanted this ending because they loved Seymour and Audrey," Oz admitted. "It was a great lesson to me."

We learned the ins and outs of the making of Little Shop of Horrors, how all the tracks were recorded about a year before filming even started at Pinewood (aka the 007 stage). The songs were played back and Oz instructed his performers to lip sync perfectly ... or else. That proved particularly complicated in big numbers such as "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space," "Feed Me" and "Skid Row." The shot in which the camera rises from "Somewhere That's Green" to "Some Fun Now" also proved to be very trying. Put succinctly, Oz said, "The whole thing was a muther."

This "muther" was only Oz's second solo directing gig. He co-helmed The Dark Crystal with Jim Henson, basically on-the-job training, according to Oz, then handled The Muppets Take Manhattan, which he endearingly kept referring to as Muppet Guys Talking -- the name of the 2017 documentary featuring all five of the original Muppets performers. He originally said no to Little Shop because Oz didn't think he'd be able to handle 12 songs, a variety of guest stars and the burgeoning greenery.

 
Two main things changed his mind. The teenage chorus -- Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell and Michele Weeks -- and the realization that the whole thing was supposed to be silly, like the B-movie the original hailed from. "The girls opened it up for me, I knew I could bop them around," Oz said. "David Geffen said, 'Frank, it's supposed to be stupid.' That opened me up completely. ... Everything by Howard is tongue-in-cheek."

Oz cast Rick Moranis as Seymour at Geffen's recommendation, but getting Ellen Greene (who starred in the off-Broadway show) proved to be a little more difficult. "Now he's one of my closest friends," the director said of Moranis. "David wanted stars. I wanted Ellen because I didn't think anyone could be better. So we screen-tested her and David agreed. David suggested Steve [Martin]. We both wanted Billy."

Oz has worked a lot with Martin since on films such as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Housesitter and Bowfinger. "I'm privileged that Steve trusts me," Oz said. "He and I are the same way. We are very, very serious about our comedy."

The director pointed out that none of the film was done in CGI. Everything was in real time, save an optical of a subway in the distance. The real problem area proved to be the plant ... once again. Because it was foam rubber, its mouth wasn't able to move as fast as Audrey II speaks or sings. So basically everything filmed for that was filmed slower and played back faster -- shot in 16 frames and played back at 24.

As the plant got larger, more bodies were involved with working it, the largest version had 40 for 60 people handling the moves. "I said, 'Guys, I don't want flapping. I want to be able to see every syllable," Oz said.

With designer Lyle Conway's assistance and sweet understanding, Little Shop grew for Oz. And it was good ... no, great ... no, spectacular, in fact. No matter what ending you watch.

The summer of Liz Phair

I never expected to be able to enjoy a live Liz Phair show three times over the course of a single season.

Technically, it was two in the summer and one in the fall, but since the final one went on sale in the summer, I'm shoehorning it in to my "summer of Liz Phair." It still blows my mind that I went to three shows in such a short time span.

It's probably because I've been a fan since Exile in Guyville, and I'd only been able at two concerts before the windfall. And the best part -- all three were different shows at different venues. It wasn't like an artist giving three straight performances at one place or following a tour to different locations. They were all in Brooklyn, the city I was born in. The cherry on top was finally getting to meet Liz and tell her, after all these years, how much her music has and continues to mean to me.

When Phair first started performing, she admitted she had to deal with stage fright. This year's performances showed how far she's come from then. She engages audiences and has started to feed off them. To hear Liz say she was looking forward to getting out on stage at the third show was rather mind-blowing.

The first one was wayyyy back on June 7 at the National Sawdust. The capacity of the striking venue is a mere 350 and it made for a very intimate night on the "Girly Sound to Guyville" Tour stop in support of the stupendous anniversary box set of the same name. I'll stop for a second to praise every single element of that release, because officially getting the amazing tracks and the eye-opening booklet examining all the elements of it was the first huge joy of the "summer of Liz Phair."

I found Exile in Guyville back in 1993 after it was voted Album of the Year in the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop Poll. I listened to it a lot as I wandered the streets of New York City that year. And the next year. I turned as many friends onto it as I could. I bought all the bootlegs I could lay my hands on. Eventually I found Support System -- once a mailing list and still a vibrant Facebook group -- and was turned on to a lot of the unreleased tracks. But having copies of copies' copies can't compare with the remastered versions on the box set.

And the first show felt like a celebration of all of that. Even better, I experienced it with the force of nature behind Support System (then and now) -- Jason Long, who flew in for the show. We queued up for the general admission event together, talking about the good ol' email list days as well as the box set and pondered what was in store for us that night.

Setlist: Fuck or Die, 6'1", Explain It to Me, Batmobile, Easy, Go West, Soap Star Joe, Ant in Alaska, Girls! Girls! Girls!, Help Me Mary, Stratford-on-Guy, Mesmerizing, Polyester Bride, Whip-Smart, Never Said, Fuck and Run, Divorce Song. 

Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) warmed us up and we were reminded of how widespread Liz's impact has been on music. And from the very first notes of the Johnny Cash-tinged "Fuck or Die" -- one of those songs we once clung to as a bootleg release -- the show was just a sweet sashay through history that, in a strange and wonderful way, we've come to share with Phair.

The first show, with just Liz and guitarist Connor Sullivan, felt like a big sing-along. The longtime fans in attendance knew all the songs, even some of the previously unreleased ones. As usual, I chose lip syncing over belting out the songs off key. No one needed to hear me do that, even in a room full of people doing the same.

We were definitely celebrating "Batmobile," a track that made the cut for the EP Juvenilia, but hadn't previously been played live and "Ant from Alaska," which surfaced on the previous anniversary edition of Guyville. So many songs are close to my heart, basically the entire setlist on this occasion.

Liz recalled sitting her bedroom recording the original Girly Sound songs and how she never expected to be celebrating Guyville and the box set release 25 years after that. "There are all these people in my bedroom," she laughed after loosening up around "Soap Star Joe."

From our vantage spot about halfway back, we could see Liz taking on intricate guitar chores on songs. I noticed it the most during "Easy" and "Girls! Girls! Girls!" but with the duo wailing away on stage, it was obviously ongoing. Most were the Guyville versions, but it was wondrous to hear a take on "Whip-Smart" closer to the original demo.



The second concert was a real surprise, a one-off show opening for Blondie at House of Vans on July 20. Another general-admission event, I got there early and parked myself on line with a lot of Blondie fans. The extra bonus was hearing soundcheck -- "Extraordinary," "Never Said," "Supernova," "Divorce Song" and what sounded like "Mesmerizing" noodling -- fairly clearly through a brick wall.

Setlist: 6'1", Fuck and Run, Divorce Song, Polyester Bride, Stratford-on-Guy, Never Said, Supernova, Johnny Feelgood, Extraordinary, Why Can't I?

It wasn't quite the same crowd of well-behaved diehard fans as the first event. They were more, ahem, a little like savages. My primary example is the millennial who wasn't there when the venue opened (and thusly hadn't parked in front of the stage for 75 minutes or so like the rest of us),  but muscled her way through the throng after Sasami opened the show. After I wouldn't give way so she could get a couple of inches closer, she poured her drink down my 1995 Phair shirt. I still didn't budge. Then she tried to shove her way past me by snarling, "You're not a lesbian, I am." I am all for LGBT, but that's not a golden ticket for rudeness.

Then again, a free show is a free show. It was spectacular to get a free t-shirt and a tote bag as well. Liz has worn her Vans shirt at gigs since and mine is already worn out as well.

Liz told us after years of wearing heels on stage and messing up her knees, she had wised up and started decked out in some comfortable Vans. She also donned a sweet Blondie shirt and a sequined shirt. She definitely worked the latter out on "Johnny Feelgood" and "Supernova."



She seemed to be having a blast on stage. Maybe it was the pressure-free existence in which she belted out 10 tunes with a full band and then hung backstage with Deborah Harry. While the audience didn't know the material quite as well this time, the energy and exuberance was definitely there for the hit-laden set.

The capper was the Amps on the Lawn tour stop at Brooklyn Steel (nope, no lawn there) on Oct. 6. That was right at the end of New York Comic Con, and the chance to see Liz again had me sold already, but then the added bonus -- a meet-and-greet!

We left the con early, that turned out to be a good thing since the directions I got online deposited us on the opposite side of Brooklyn. An Uber later, Sestra and I were still the first two people in line. So we were standing front and center for soundcheck. A fog machine seemed to be pumping away on high and Liz told us to "Come on in!" It seemed like a horror movie with a really good soundtrack.

The band started off with a warmup instrumental before kicking into "Supernova," "Polyester Bride" and "Mesmerizing." I teared up during "Polyester Bride," Liz was singing and I was mouthing the words at the same time. Liz asked whether it was all right if they worked on "Uncle Alvarez," -- as though we would complain about that -- because she felt like her vocals were wandering on lyrics like "imaginary accomplishments." Afterward, she asked, "Doesn't that [song] feel really relevant right now? It's kind of scary." Yeah, it really does.

I spent a couple months trying to figure out what to say to someone whose work has influenced me so greatly. But yet when I got to the front of the meet-and-greet line, what sprang to mind was how the photographer was "Tatum O'Neal-ing." Regular blog readers might recall that the Oscar-winning actress prefers to be photographed at an angle from up higher. And when I referred to Tatum as a verb, Liz asked about Tatum O'Neal-ing.

My subsequent dialogue went something like this: "Tatum O'Neal-ing is ... oh, hi, I'm Paige. Big fan forever." (Or some such bunk.) I started to explain Tatum-ing again. "Is it OK if I get a hug?  (Then after the hug,) so I thought [the photographer] was Tatum O-Nealing because he is so tall!" That really wasn't what I worked so hard trying to come up with for three months. But when it was her turn, Sestra saved the day -- as she often does. She told Liz I introduced her music to her and Liz asked "Do you want to join us?" for their photo as well. I think I made some kind of "uhhh, yeah" retort and a Roadrunner noise circling back over to them. That's when I started shaking. Oh well, at least my adrenaline rush held off until then.

Setlist: Supernova, Johnny Feelgood, Cinco de Mayo, Uncle Alvarez, Everything to Me, Never Said, 6'1", Help Me Mary, Blood Keeper (with Sadie Dupuis), The Game, Mesmerizing, Polyester Bride, Stratford-on-Guy, Extraordinary, Why Can't I? Encore: Fuck and Run, Divorce Song.



Back at the National Sawdust show, Liz had mentioned the unique energy of New York. "It might be supernatural," she said at Brooklyn Steel, later adding that if property values were lower in New York she would surely move here. "I couldn't wait to fuckin' get on stage tonight."

The audience at the last show seemed like a combination of the two prior ones, and they really liked the whitechocolatespaceegg material. We didn't get quite the vantage point we had for soundcheck, just a row of people or so behind, but we were close enough to make eye contact with guitarists Connor Sullivan and Cody Perrin. To the right of my sister, there were a bunch of jostling millennials who squeezed in after the end of opener Speedy Ortiz's set. I'm not sure how many knew what a boon it was to get the unreleased WCSE-era song "Blood Keeper," performed with Speedy Ortiz's lead singer Sadie Dupuis.

The full band sounded great. We had new insight into "Uncle Alvarez" after the soundcheck and were even listening for "wandering vocals" and knowing glances. Loved the new song, "The Game," although it was the one song I didn't know all the words to. Otherwise, it was just me rocking out and lip syncing to every song. It was all the more fun for having my sister there, and she held up well considering it was a long day that capped an exhaustively enjoyable Comic Con week.

I love how this trifecta ultimately panned out. The most emotional musical experience came first and the long-awaited opportunity to meet her and rock out with my sister was most recent. I couldn't have scheduled it better if I had something to do with any of it.

I'll be waiting patiently for my next opportunity to see her, but I don't expect anything like "the summer of Liz Phair" to wash over me again.

'Partying like it's 1995'

Give me a 'B' ... give me an 'e' ... what's it spell? Beck? Belly? Both!

I had the opportunity to experience both these '90s icons on stage and in their elements in the past several months. Both are artists I wasn't completely obsessed with during that decade, but have become increasingly so about in the ensuing years.

I'd been particularly bonkers over Beck. Ever since the Midnite Vultures album, he's soared higher and higher in my estimation. I love how he changes styles with each album. What could he do after racking up Grammys with the critically lauded, dreamy Morning Phase? To the extremely danceable Colors, of course!



So how many concerts have attended in your lifetime in which the overriding opinion wound up being "It wasn't as good as the record?" It can't be said about Beck. Despite the difficulty inherent in recreating the multi-layered sounds of Colors for the stage, he sounded outta sight in his first headlining gig at Madison Square Garden on July 19. "This is no small miracle to be here," he told us. It kind of felt that way to me, my Beck buddy Liam and the vibrant crowd as well.

Setlist: Devils Haircut, The New Pollution, Mixed Bizness, Up All Night, Wow, Qué Onda Güero, Think I'm in Love (I Feel Love interlude), I'm So Free, Dear Life (with Britt Daniel),  I Turn My Camera On (with Daniel), Girl Dreams (with Jenny Lewis), Lost Cause, Blue Moon, Video Girl, Colors, Loser, E-Pro. Encore: Where It's At Play, Can I Kick It/Good Times/See No Evil/I'm Waiting for the Man/Taking It to the Streets/Once in A Lifetime/In the Air Tonight, One Foot in the Grave, Where It's At (reprise).

As evidenced by the setlist, there was an amazing mix of tracks from virtually every corner of his discography. Spoon frontman Britt Daniel joined in for one of Beck's -- "Dear Life" and one of his own -- "I Turn My Camera On." Then Beck dedicated "Girl Dreams" to Bill Murray after finding out the actor liked the song. "I have a song called 'Girl' and a song called 'Dreams' and a song called 'Girl Dreams,'" he laughed. We were particularly thrilled to get the latter, since the One Foot in the Grave track hadn't been played live since 2003.



There were lots of fun Beck tidbits sprinkled throughout the night of music, including family history about his ancestors jumping overboard and then working on the docks in New Jersey. He thanked us for indulging his desire to change genres. But seriously, Beck, we're not coddling you in the slightest. When you can pull off a dance tune as well as one of the funky soul variety, it's not difficult to remain Team Beck. He told us that Colors came about as a result of all the energy he's gotten from fans over the years. On this particular date, those helping cultivate a strong dose of positive energy included his mother and his son.

Beck told a story of a previous appearance at the Garden, in 1997 for the Grammys. Odelay was a nominee for Album of the Year and he had just performed "Where It's At" when he was "taken through twists and turns" around the labyrinthine passageways and left in a holding area ... with Bruce Springsteen. "It was like a dream where you turn around and see Bruce," he recalled. "I asked him, 'What are you doing here?' He asked me, ''What are you doing here?"



That made for the perfect segueway into the song he performed that night at the Grammys, complete with a lovely "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro. Then the members of his band went around the horn spotlighting iconic artists from the city, including A Tribe Called Quest ("Can I Kick It?"), Chic ("Good Times"), Television ("See No Evil"), Velvet Underground ("I'm Waiting for the Man") and Talking Heads ("Once in a Lifetime"). Beck also brought back long beloved members of his band and I flashed back to Liam and my 2006 Jersey City show when they fell all over each other to cap "E-Pro" ... just as they had done back then.

At least I'd seen Beck before. I thought I had eternally missed the Belly boat when I was thrown a life preserver in the form of the Sept. 28 show at the Union Transfer in Philadelphia. The tour came on the heels of the band's very strong third album, Dove, very reminiscent of the catchy and heartfelt songs Tanya Donelly and company became known for in the '90s.



Set 1 setlist: Seal My Fate, Army of Clay, Dusted, Mine, Red, The Bees, Quicksand, Stars Align, Now They'll Sleep, Silverfish. Set 2: Shiny One, Gepetto, Faceless, Feed the Tree, Artifact, Slow Dog, Girl, Super-Connected, Full Moon Empty Heart, Human Child. Encore: Low Red Moon, Starryeyed.

"Did you miss us?" bassist Gail Greenwood asked when Belly took the stage and I didn't realize how much I did until just then. It didn't matter that they flubbed the start of "Army of Clay," in fact, it proved to be all the more endearing for the humanizing moment. Greenwood gave me the blog headline when she proclaimed we'd be partying like 1995. After proclaiming "time is elastic," that concept was tweaked to 1993 and used again for the band's seminal song, "Feed the Tree."



Donelly's vocals seemed a little buried from my perch on the second floor of Union Transfer, but the telltale Belly riffs were unmistakable, even in the new songs. The full force of Tanya's ability broke through the mix on "Red" and some of the newer songs. One concertgoer called for "Judy Staring at the Sun," the Catherine Wheel song featuring Donelly. Tanya laughed and said "it would sound very sad and and small with long pauses in between [the lyrics] 'She's suffering.'"

The chemistry between Donelly, Greenwood, lead guitarist Tom Gorman and drummer Chris Gorman was palpable. So much so that when someone shouted "Get a room" after Tanya kissed Tom, she responded, "If that was gonna happen, it would have happened a long time ago."



That week, the band was reeling on the heels of the Senate Judiciary Committee's dismissal of sexual assault testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, referring to the miscarriage of justice several times during the night. Donely offered up a two-handed middle-finger salute and thanked the crowd for "turning a shit week into a fucking beautiful week."

Admittedly, at the time, I didn't know their songs as well as I wished I did, so I could lip sync to every single song. But that will surely change by the next time I get to see them, for Belly is right up my proverbial alley. The passion they have for playing with each other and to the audience backs up some amazing talent, for sure.

So if I could jump in a time machine and head back to 1995 or 1993, I'd surely be paying more attention to both Beck and Belly. I'd be Beck to the future with a Belly full of memories.

Doctors, superheroes and Boys, oh my!

Another year, another New York Comic Con. Which loosely translated means a lot of rushing around, muscling way through crowds, sharing some precious moments with favorite actors ... and coming down with con crud. But in the final determination, it all seems worth it.

Our Comic Con started early this year with a lottery win to see a screening of DC Entertainment's new series Titans. Even that came with added bonuses, namely Brendan Fraser coming on stage to tell us about Doom Patrol -- a show featuring characters dealing with physical disabilities instead of models -- and Kaley Cuoco's blink-and-you-miss-her Harley Quinn introduction.

The new-and-flashy Titans came off as ultra-violent and not particularly appreciative of history. Sestra deemed it character assassination -- and Dick Grayson's "f--- Batman" comment seemed to back that up. The powers-that-be apparently wanted that line of dialogue to be polarizing ... and it was. Half the audience greeted that sentiment with uproarious laughter and cheers as the rest of us shifted uncomfortably in our seats.

I thought the standout among the superheroes in the Titans family was Teagan Croft as Rachel, there seem to be a lot of places to take that character in the future ... and that will include a Season 2 as the show runners confirmed that it had been green-lit.

The next day it was on to the Javits Center. Day 1 is usually about getting as far through the vendor room as we can, but we wanted to see early arrival Dean Cain. So we jumped on to his line and waited ... and waited ... as the scheduled autograph time came and went. After an hour of that, we took off.

But we tried again later in the afternoon and guilted our way onto the line when it was about to wrap up for the day. Cain is very gregarious and engaging. In checking out our "Sibling Cinema" shirts and spotting the #10wordmoviereviews hashtag, he exclaimed, "I can read 10 words!" We also talked about Season 11 of The X-Files, since our other hashtag is #XFilesrewatch. He fondly recalled filming Lois and Clark when both shows were in their respective heydays. Although his handler gave us the move-along, Dean continued the conversation.

Sestra asked him which movie we should do a 10-word review of, and he mentioned Gosnell, his then-upcoming film on the story of Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell. (We definitely plan to get to that one when our schedule allows.) Spotting our Christopher Reeve Foundation Superman dog tags, he said he had gotten that too and met Reeve's wonderful children during his travels. Dean put us -- well, our Sibling Cinema business card anyway -- in his back pocket. And we got big hugs before and after our selfie snap.

After a hearty day of shopping, we went to the lively Neil DeGrasse Tyson StarTalk panel -- another lottery win for us. The "Hollywood astrophysicist" often took a backseat to his guests -- theoretical physicist Brian Greene and comic Chuck Nice -- while mulling over the topics of Doctor Who's time travel, the quantum physics of Ant-Man and Stranger Things' parallel universes.

It's difficult to convey how much fun the three discussions with a recap, but in simplest of terms -- the group voted thumbs-up on the idea of Doctor Who wormholes, mostly down on the seismic Ant-Man changes and split on parallel universes.

Put succinctly by the man himself, "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." After excellent advice to wanna-be writers/creators to make sure what they present makes sense within the universe it exists in, DeGrasse Tyson shared an emotional letter to NASA he penned for the anniversary of that organization and his own 60th birthday.

Day 2 was full of fun interactions with more celebrities, including Alex Kingston -- close to Sestra's heart as River Song in Doctor Who, but just as close to mine for the vibrant production of Macbeth I attended at the Park Avenue Armory four years ago. During our quick photo op, I told her how amazing I thought she was in it. She halted and responded "That really means a lot to me." As that moment did to me. Meeting David Tennant -- Sestra's Doctor and my No. 2 -- consisted a lot of smiling and no small amount of perspiration (for me, at least).

We also did the Lois and Clark photo op with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher -- although the volunteers attempting to keep us in line with shouts of "Lewis and Clark!! Lewis and Clark!!" were simultaneously off-putting and amusing. When we got to them, I heard someone ask Hatcher how old she was. Teri declined with a polite joke and smiled when I backed her up with a "Yeah, Teri!" Ever-attentive Dean noted we had changed to our Wonder Twins shirts and exclaimed, "10-word movie reviews"! That's the kind of publicity we like.



As Sestra went off to our third lottery win -- for Karl Urban's The Boys -- I started a line to meet the authors of an amazing Apollo graphic novel. Matt Fitch and Chris Baker told me they had just flown over from England and I was their first fan. They seemed as excited to meet me as I was to greet them. Matt's space interest had been passed down from his dad, who was very much into the Challenger story, while Chris became interested in it more recently. Then Mike Collins was brought into the fold. I told them when I first heard about their book, I thought the original Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins (also an artist) might have contributed. Of course, Mike Collins -- who has worked on the Dr. Who series and drew the Sherlock: Mind Palace coloring book -- is no slouch in that department. In fact, Mike was unable to attend the con due to ongoing Dr. Who obligations.

When I reunited with Sestra, I heard about how she "borderline fan-girled" at The Boys signing, which included Simon Pegg as well. She told me she "broke the assembly line" by engaging in conversation with Urban, that included some side chat from Jack Quaid (described as "such a little flirt.") Sestra described it as being akin to the conveyor belt on the uproarious I Love Lucy candy episode in which everything got backed up and off track. I think she enjoyed being the cause of the backup in this case.

A few weeks earlier, we went back and forth before committing to the Doctor Who panel at the Hammerstein Ballroom, and so glad we ultimately decided in its favor because it was a wild and wacky one with Kingston, Tennant and Matt Smith. I think Kingston convinced them to go an unconventional route, so it featured the actors interviewing members of the audience -- including those dressed like their Doctor Who characters and children. It was a great way of getting around a traditional Q&A session.

When the audience did get to pose some questions, David got adorably unnerved when he was asked about what transpired on the set of "The Doctor's Daughter," the Doctor Who episode that featured his future real-life wife, Georgia Moffett. T-he details remained private on that, but Tennant felt a lot more comfortable bemoaning the budget during his years on the show. "We only went to Rome on green screen because HBO was leasing sets," he quipped. Meanwhile, Matt Smith and his compatriots got to travel to New York and go to Spain and other exotic locations to shoot the show.

One story I hadn't previously heard was how Tennant and Smith both stayed in the same flat -- at different times, of course -- while they were starring in the series. Smith teased that he thought about how Tennant went about memorizing the "incredibly wordy dialogue" within the same confines.

All three of them sound genuinely thrilled to be part of the show's legacy and threw their support completely behind the incoming 13th doctor Jodie Whittaker. We were really hoping she'd make a surprise appearance, but a late-night show had her booked that night, so it wasn't to be. To tell the truth, I didn't really remember we wanted that until we were heading home. 



Our last day at NYCC was an abbreviated one, but was highlighted by a photo op with Smith. We told him how much we enjoyed the previous night's entertainment. He asked "Was that fun?" while giving us fist bumps. Before and after that, we went to world premiere pilot screenings of a couple shows (Legacies -- the latest spinoff of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals -- and Roswell, New Mexico), both helmed by Julie Plec. I think we both preferred the latter, which kept the spirit of the original series and stars the affable Nathan Parsons. Sitting behind the casts each time, we got a darkened glimpse at their reactions to the inaugural showings. And aside from one power-hungry line coordinator for Roswell, it marked a fine end to this year's incarnation of the con for both of us.