Turning Nightmares into pleasant dreams

There are performers who get the concept of fan conventions, and there are those just go to make the quick bucks. There's always a small fear that one of your favorites will be the latter. And then there are the ones like Robert Englund, who understand that we're not just autograph seekers who want to take a picture of them. We're fans who they've made an impression on.

Now mind you, waiting for your turn to meet the horror icon best known at Freddy Krueger is a grueling task. At Monster Mania, it meant sitting on one line for about an hour, another for two hours and a third for another hour. But at the end of the day, it was so worth it. Not only does he listen to your tale of fandom, he offers up tidbits that you wouldn't have considered asking about in the first place.

Monster Mania has started doing the kind of VIP treatment I'd first experienced at Wizard World Philadelphia. Basically, it means that people who paid for the privilege can cut you in line, no matter how long you've been waiting. Which was the case here, except that even with that designation, the line stayed long and unwieldy because Robert was really conversing with each and every person he met. It wasn't just spelling your name, saying you love the person's work, maybe getting in one question and then moving on.

The VIPs in front of us never really moved. And ultimately, we got put in front of those people in the last room -- the one Robert was signing in -- because those in our row had been waiting since the doors opened that day, about three hours by that time. We benefited from being in that row. Sestra was just along for the long ride on the slow boat to Robert, she'd met him before. But she did sneak down and meet all the other Nightmare 4 cast members in attendance -- Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel, Tuesday Knight and Andras Jones -- ostensibly since the rest of us were awaiting the big guy.

Robert was really playing to my fellow fans. When you were near the front of the room, you could hear the stories he was telling and it made the final wait time fly by. He quipped a line from the first Nightmare, "I'll kill you slow," after someone gave him a replica of Freddy's knives glove for his picture. That made Sestra giggle, which made me giggle in turn.

With a table full of photos to choose from for the autograph, I found it a difficult choice. Sis recommended the one with the slate in the picture, since I'm a movie buff in general, and that wound up being the perfect choice. After I sat down at his table and before I could even ask a question, he queried, "Do you know the story behind this picture?" "No, tell me," I said in possibly my most girliest voice.

That picture was taken for Robert's audition scene for the original Nightmare on Elm Street. After that, they changed the look of Freddy -- his face was "dripping with goo" but they realized they would be unable to match that in every shot throughout the film. The sweater was a little smaller, the hat was altered as was part of his ear meant to be bitten off by a hound of hell.

I chuckled when he said he auditioned "while on a little show called V," because V was one of my favorites from that era. He added that he had been interested in creating a character with makeup, which he later got to do a lot more of on that show as Willie, the kind-hearted lizard alien. "I thought I'd do that forever," he said of V, and it instantly reminded me of how shocked I was when the series wasn't renewed back in the day.

He told us about how much Nightmare changed the image of Wes Craven, who was thought of more as a David Lynch-type director. He recalled a bar he used to frequent that had the poster of Craven's Last House on the Left on one side and Lynch's Eraserhead on the other.

And then he really listened to my favorite story of taking 12-year-old Sestra to the movie -- how the usher said people had run out because they couldn't handle the movie and Sestra boasted that she would be able to. And then how she subsequently got spooked during the first death and wanted to go to the bathroom, but I told her to just crouch down behind the seat instead (so I wouldn't miss any, of course.) Sestra added a bit I didn't remember about making screeching sounds like Freddy in the dead of night after that. "That's the way to do it," Robert said. "Or on the outside of the window."

We also talked about one of the recurring themes of the series -- girl power. Robert said women initially watched the first one with their hands behind their eyes, but then saw the stories were about strong females fighting a beast ... and winning. "It was the first sort of story to do that ... except for Sigourney Weaver in Alien," Englund said.

In parting, he recognized Sestra's shirt as the subtle Nightmare on Elm Street 4 reference that it was and took a good crack at my Sam Loomis' Hardware shirt -- he tried for Halloween instead of Psycho. To be fair, the doctor in Halloween is named Sam Loomis as a tribute to Psycho.

I got to talk more about the "girl power" nature of the films with Wilcox, the female lead in Nightmare 4 and 5. She clearly learned a lot from the films, as she directed me -- putting me in the perfect position for photos. Around these parts, we call that doing her best Tatum O'Neal.

She's always maintained she was a lot like Alice when she started, so it was the perfect role for her. And I could truly see both those elements in the short time I got to spend with her. The "Alice Lives" pins given away to us were a nice touch as well.

Then we met Curtis Armstrong. The man had a righteous Orphan Black shirt on, so his coolness quotient quickly went up. And then even further because he was an engaging individual. Although this past season we've been watching him in Supernatural, my favorite will probably always be Moonlighting.

So we engaged in some Blue Moon conversation. When I said he and Allyce Beasley were adorable together as Bert and Agnes, he said he had just had lunch with Allyce in New York a few weeks prior to discuss stories for the book he'll be publishing next July. Just the idea of Curtis and Allyce hanging out kind of made my heart happy.

We talked about "Atomic Shakespeare," which I had just viewed, being a stellar episode. And I added that I had seen him in a guest spot on Cybill Shepherd's next show, Cybill, in which he and Moonlighting nemesis Jack Blessing played directors. "That was a weird one," he admitted. Hope there's more to that story in the book!

When I met Lee Majors at Chiller a few years ago, he must have been under the weather, because he was on top of his game for his panel at Monster-Mania. He told great stories, although Six Million Dollar Man clearly wasn't his favorite gig. I believe the word he used was "boring." Kind of a hard hit for diehard fans like myself to take, but he was acting it and not invested in like a good pre-teen.

"Have you ever tried to run with bell bottoms on, swishing back and forth?" he asked. "Now I walk in slow motion. ... I wish I was [bionic], especially in my left knee."

But he did tell us some funny tales, and we weren't bored in the slightest. The Bigfoot episodes starred Andre the Giant in that role. "He sure threw me a long way," Majors said. "I looked up into the sun and here comes the shade. He drops down on me and I didn't feel a thing. That's how good he was. ... All day long he was drinking six packs. I never saw him go to the bathroom all day."

I even got up to the audience microphone to ask about quirky things that happened during filming. He replied that the effects guys Inky and Joe wouldn't always get everything right. "I'd go to kick in a steel door and they hadn't loosened the hinges. Or I go to bend a bar and it would be too tight. During one explosion, they set it off and burned my butt. ... There were bloopers that we'd see at the end of the season. I was with Stephanie Powers in a cave once and [her line was,] 'Are we trapped?' and I said, "Does a bear shit in the woods?'"

Of course, the upcoming Six Billion Dollar Man project starring Mark Wahlberg came up. "What a slap in the face," he said. There's also a Fall Guy project in the works with Dwayne Johnson attached.

Now he's got a great role in one of the hottest current shows in con fandom, Ash vs. Evil Dead. He plays Bruce Campbell's father and has really relished the experience so far. "The only thing I didn't like ... he starts calling me 'Pop.'"



The Fall Guy is clearly a personal favorite of Majors' since he said that character was more like him in real life. He also loved doing stunts and did about 85 in his career. "It made the day go faster. ... I used to be 6-1, I think I'm 5-11 now after all those stunts."

He's still friends with Lindsay Wagner, his bionic female counterpart, and Richard Anderson, who was on both programs. They've seen each other over the years at other conventions. "One day I said I'm tired of looking at these hairy-legged crew guys. That's when we came up with the bionic woman."

He told some great stories, among them, that his football teammates dared him to try out for The Crucible, his tiny role in his first film Strait-Jacket with Joan Crawford and friendships with Paul Newman and Elvis Presley. He enjoyed being able to bring personal favorites like Roy Rogers in as guest stars on his shows. And the best career advice he ever got was from legend Barbara Stanwyck, his co-star in The Big Valley. "Be on time, know your words, hit your marks and keep your mouth closed."

The Fright Night panel with Amanda Bearse and Stephen Geoffreys proved to be equally as fun and informative. They talked about how Roddy McDowell would tell great stories from all his years in the business -- from Charlie Chaplin to Elizabeth Taylor, and how McDowell and Chris Sarandon always treated them like peers on the set.

The cast had time to rehearse before starting the project. "We kind of knew there was something good and golden here," Amanda said. "This is icing on the cake," Stephen added. "It's what ... 30 years later? We're still talking about it."

Both Bearse and Geoffreys said writer/director Tom Holland really had a unique vision, so when Geoffreys had to spend four or five hours in the makeup chair it was well worth it. "It was all in the script," she said. "He took it very seriously, but it was so human." "When Tom had something to tell you, he put his arm around you," he added. "It was a real personal thing. I think it shows in the final product."

And that's the fan experience in a nutshell, we still think about these movies and shows fondly decades later because of the care and talent put into them back in the day.

Friday night in Jersey, Urban-style

I can probably count on one hand the number of concerts I've gone to in which I didn't know a fairly sizable chunk of the artist's catalog. But gonna need one of those digits for Keith Urban. I find him very personable as a human being and talented as a guitarist and vocalist, but I only know one of his albums, and none of the songs in the setlist were from that one. Mark wasn't familiar with the material either. That didn't stop us from fully enjoying the show.

But we were covered as everyone else in the audience seemed to know every single word. Up on the lawn behind us, six girls were dancing with each other and singing every word about as loud as they could. We were just enjoying the groove. And the dazzling array of guitars that Keith would bring out almost every song. We cringed as one of them was shot-put in the air in what we hope was the general vicinity of a guitar tech. Another one was signed and handed to a kid in the crowd.



This man's stage presence certainly is engaging. He acknowledges all the signs he can see. He brought a girl from New York at her first Keith concert up to the stage (and later her dad too), asked her what her favorite song was and sang some of it -- "Break on Me" -- to and with her, even though he'd already played it. Which reminds me, he also pointed out some unique personailty quirks of New Jersey residents, and as Mark put it, every other song seemed to have a lyric aptly proclaiming it to be Friday night.

His crew set up a "B" stage at the back left end of the covered seats so he could play to those of us sitting on the grass for a spell. "Who's got the best seats now?" he inquired. Well, it could still have been those in the paid seats, for he has a fine behind. (I feel confident saying that's just a Paige aside, and not Mark's feelings as well.)

What a night 😅😍🎶 @KeithUrban @bretteldredge pic.twitter.com/31XtMVg44e

— caybay (@caseybaylis) August 27, 2016

During "Somebody Like You," performed with second opening act Brett Eldredge, both gentlemen played up to the camera as though they were singing right to one person. Which it did kind of seem like they were doing. On the main stage, he brought the first opening act -- Maren Morris -- to perform "We Were Us" with him. And he utilized modern technology to sing "The Fighter" with Carrie Underwood on the videoboard.



He covered Muse's "Unintended," and later did a huge chunk of John Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane" in reggae-esque fashion and little snippets of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" and The Police's "So Lonely." Recognized those, but as I said, it didn't take away from anything to not know his catalog as well as the other thousands.

The encore songs featured Keith performing "Stupid Boy" alone on the acoustic guitar and the crowd-pleasing "Raise 'Em Up." Had I had any of my strawberry lemonade vodka left, I surely would have raised it up for that. Then he thanked each and every one of us for choosing his show and "jumping through hoops" to get there.

All those day before yesterdays

It was a whirlwind trip to Boston. After an 11-hour work shift threatened by a few computer system halts, I boarded the express to South Station. This was definitely an express trip, I was due back on board 24 hours after I arrived.

Got a little nap in at Chez Fitz -- of course, I was hanging with my Pearl Jam bud, Liam -- and then headed over to the hallowed ground of Fenway Park. Felt completely exhausted ... but if the delectable Sharon Gabet (best known as Raven Whitney on Edge of Night) tells you you're looking good, you go with it!

Loved our fan club seats, two sections over from Pesky Pole. We looked directly onto the stage in center field, more than I can say for the floor seats that seemed to be facing the right-field wall.

Main set: Release, Long Road, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, Low Light, All Those Yesterdays, Given To Fly, Mind Your Manners, Why Go, Daughter/WMA,/Another Brick in the Wall, Even Flow, Faithfull, Grievance, I Am Mine, Down, Black, Do The Evolution, Masters of War, I Am a Patriot, Porch.

Encore 1: Strangest Tribe, Society, Just Breathe, Sleeping by Myself, Wasted Reprise/Life Wasted, State of Love and Trust, Comfortably Numb, Corduroy.

Encore 2: Draw the Line, Alive, I’ve Got a Feeling, Baba O’Riley.

We got two openers for the price of one -- "Release" and "Long Road." I immediately realized that this is a band tailor-made for sending their words and music into the open air ... and that it had been about 13 years since my last outdoor Pearl Jam show. (It wasn't until I made a chart for this blog that I realized I had never before gotten "Release" on one of my setlists.)

"Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" made an early entry into the set. With a woman whose back was tattooed with more lyrics to the song than its elongated title in front of us, our section was emotionally engaged in the show pretty quickly. And "Low Light," "All Those Yesterdays" and "Faithfull" drove me completely mad -- they're tracks from my favorite Pearl Jam album, Yield, that I had never seen live before.



They scorched through the first set with the likes of "Given to Fly" and "Mind Your Manners" and "Even Flow" and "Porch." At one point, Stone and Matt cracked me up by starting "Grievance." But then they stopped to do "Faithfull," and went back to "pledge their grievance to the flag" after that -- apparently they jumped a song in the setlist.

Of course, we were awash in Boston references and baseball references and Boston baseball references. It's not like I didn't expect that, but it still brought me out of my reverie to some degree. Former Red Sox hurler and fashion plate Bronson Arroyo joined in for "Black," even singing the background do-do-do-do-do-do-dos from the old days.

Eddie elicited some boos from the crowd when he mentioned loving the Cubs, and he chastised the crowd for not remembering what it's like to not bring home a championship for a very long, long time. But he added that his favorite American League team was the Red Sox, and all was right in the land once again.

It was horribly cute when "Youk" -- Kevin Youkilis -- brought out Eddie's ukelele, it was what one might call a natural. Later, sports personality, and I use that term loosely, Peter Gammons took the stage ... and then left it. I guess he just wanted to say "hi" to Ed.



One of the show's highlights was a cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War." I've heard/seen Eddie perform this with Mike at "Bobfest" a number of years back, but the full band sound was truly something to behold. I got chills. Until I looked to the side and saw the number of people streaming for the exits, then I got annoyed.

They took it down a notch in level, albeit not, in quality to start the second set. "Strangest Tribe" is a soulful song that I hadn't previously experienced in concert, and the show marked only the second time Eddie's "Society" from Into the Wild was performed by the band. "Just Breathe" and "Sleeping by Myself" kept us pretty chilled out until they rocketed into "Life Wasted," complete with reprise, and "State of Love and Trust."

In compiling my setlist chart, I saw that ELEVEN of the songs they hadn't performed before "for me." Granted, a couple were covers -- like Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and Aerosmith's "Draw the Line" -- and I'm saving the best for last, but that seemed like an awfully high number. To share my bounty with the rest of you, they were in order of appearance ... "Release," "Low Light," "All Those Yesterdays," "Faithfull," "Masters of War," "Strangest Tribe," "Society," "Sleeping by Myself," "Comfortably Numb," "Draw the Line" and the holy grail, something they haven't performed (except for one other time in Boston) since their earliest incarnations, "I've Got a Feeling."

Their Beatles song ("All Those Yesterdays") AND a Beatles cover? Let's just say my socks -- no, they weren't red -- were knocked off.

Almost doing anything for Damian Lewis

When I'm in-season at my job and for my own sanity, I generally stick to my regular schedule -- Fridays and Saturdays off -- so I can rest and recuperate. There are precious few things that make me divert from that course. Damian Lewis at TimesTalks would be one of those.

My first exposure to Damian came during the inaugural season of his Emmy-winning role as Nicholas Brody in Homeland. After that, I went back and saw everything I had missed ahead of that, including the amazing mini-series Band of Brothers and the offbeat procedural Life. I love all three of these to bits and pieces, and any given day of the week, I would probably tell you that any of them was my favorite.

Now there's a new one in the mix I haven't seen yet -- Damian is back on Showtime in Billions with Paul Giamatti. On the TimesTalks waiting line, I felt like the only one who hasn't seen it yet. Lots of glowing testimonials. Maybe enough to prevent me from waiting for the box set to come out and pay to watch it streaming. Of course, in the meantime, I could just continue my Homeland and Life rewatches, as well as Wolf Hall and a variety of movies that I already own.

There's something to be said for getting there early so you have a front-row seat. I met some very fine people who have many of the same tastes that I do. First, there was the artist known as Damianista -- she writes and coordinates the Fan Fun with Damian Lewis blog and companion Facebook group. She knew who I was the minute I got there. And we made a new friend, Joyce, who doesn't do the social media thing. We spent about 90 minutes discussing everything under the sun.

Until ... we saw Damian walking into the building. Holy crud, he's yummy. Anyway, when we got let in, Damianista, Joyce and I quickly slipped into the three seats in front of the stage.

Being a New York Times evening, it didn't seem too off the mark that the discussion started on a political note. (On "Brexit," he's in favor of staying.) I think most people who know of Damian Lewis do know that, although his American accent is flawless, he's actually a Brit. From there, moderator Cara Buckley delved into Lewis' personal history and his own opinion of the hedge-fund managers he researched for Billions, which prompted him to quip, "I was hoping it was going to be an easier evening than this. ... I just wanted to talk about what sort of [makeup] I was wearing on my skin. Whether or not I wore waterproof mascara or not during rainy scenes."

He had a great explanation about why he has been tapped to play working-class American roles, even though he comes from a privately educated background in another country. He called it a "genetic fluke," but I think that's seriously downplaying what he has to offer. He pinpointed it more clearly in regards to his casting on Band of Brothers. His demeanor meant he was well-suited for the maturity and bearing inherent in Richard Winters. And then once Hollywood saw he could do that convincingly, it became a lot easier to nab those kind of intricate roles.

Damian said he does identify with the characters he's been played, adding maybe his red-headed Irish blue-collar look helps him land some of those parts. But in Brody, Winters and Charlie Crews from Life, he appreciated their American sense of drive and desire, of wanting to build or achieve something with their lives.

Homeland became something of a zeitgeist, not in small part because he said the show "reeked of quality and class," mirroring real-life situations -- minus the part in which a CIA operative and a suspected terrorist get personally involved -- while still being able to entertain. Lewis nabbed the Emmy and the Golden Globe that first season. "I didn't know people could get that famous," he said.

He made us laugh quite a bit, whether it was talking about wearing a thong to get his character's walk right in The Escapist -- "it was a little divisive." He also detailed different groups of Homeland fans, including those who watched just to see the relationship between Brody and Carrie (Claire Danes) develop -- "They should have ginger babies, it's going to be so exciting" -- or liberals discussing what made for a terrorist act.

Damian's descriptions of his roles were as piquant as the parts themselves. Henry VIII from Wolf Hall was deemed "the lovable genocidal maniac." Brody from Homeland was described as "tumbleweed blown across the bleak landscape of his life," while Bobby Axelrod from Billions is "blowing the tumbleweed ... kicking it about."

He'll soon be seen on the big screen in Our Kind of Traitor, based on a John LeCarre novel. He considers his role of Hector to be the ambiguous LeCarre character in the story, he's exacting revenge for personal reasons but softened by Stellan Skarsgard's bid to save his family. The idea of Damian taking over as James Bond was not referenced, but the idea of him playing Steve McQueen in a biopic was brought up. "I consider it a lot, but I'm not sure anyone else has."

I do think his feathers got a little ruffled when his success was mentioned in connection with that of Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Redmayne. As he pointed out, that is a tiny minority of actors who hailed from "posh" schools in Britain doing well at the moment. "There is every reason for you to fail, mostly because of typecasting. ... There are also a handful of actors, contemporaries of mine, who are doing very well as actors and they're wonderful and talented actors, but aren't big, big stars like Tom and Eddie, Benedict. [And some of them have taken the point of view that,] 'Oh, now, they're getting in on the act. ... I was going to be that star, but that got taken by a guy who got a nice education.'"

He told two very touching stories about Band of Brothers, one about the episode in which Winters and his company discover a concentration camp. Lewis and the rest of the cast were not prepped or rehearsed for it, as he explained, their harrowed reactions were very real. The other was about watching the final ep and seeing Winters' lip quiver. "It was the first time I had seen him express any emotion about the second World War. ... When he recounts the story of one of his co-veterans being questioned by his grandson, and his grandson says to him, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' And his grandfather says, 'No, but I served in a company of heroes.' It's difficult not to well up now, and Dick, his lip just quivers and his voice chokes, and it's epic. ... It's like a crack in a slow-moving glacier. It's an extraordinary moment when he just shows that little bit of emotion, because he's not given to that as a man."

After it ended, Damianista approached the stage to talk with him while the rest of us hung back and watched. And she said one thing and another and he nodded and she said another and another. And then ... "Paige'll do it." And I said, "I don't know what it is, but Paige'll do it!"

At that point, I went up to them at the stage. Bless her heart, Damianista introduced me as a "big fan." I think then I tilted my head, so he could see I was wearing my Life cap (the title being on the back of the hat). Damian extended his hand, saying, "Hi, Paige, thank you for coming." I think I got a two-handed shake on that.

Anyway, I found out that the "it" was a quick video they wanted me to shoot for the anniversary of Damianista's blog. It was arranged that she would go to the lobby and be taken to Damian from there. Great! Except for the fact that she disappeared in the throng of the exiting crowd and I couldn't find her again.

Now I wasn't exactly panicking during this time, because Joyce was with me and we were marveling over my unexpected introduction to Damian. I really didn't feel I should push my way through the crowd, so we just made our way to the lobby when we could, and then looked all around without success for Damianista.

Eventually I did find her, and the video had already been shot. So that was kind of a bummer, but I will never think of this night as anything but a big win. Especially since Damianista is my walking .gif -- repeating "Hi Paige, thank you for coming" -- at will. Won't tire of that any time soon.

P.S. from P.S.: Click here to read the fab Fan Fun blog of the evening, and below, the interview I almost recorded. I have to say, I am quite sure this person did a better job than I would have, since my heart certainly would have been beating double-time and my hands shaking even more than that.

Cuddling up with 'The X-Files'

Just some words of wisdom to Wizard World attendees. You have someone you absolutely must see? Make sure you do the VIP treatment. Otherwise your day will be filled with stress and loathing.

Public service announcement over. And rest assured, our trek to Wizard World in Philadelphia ultimately has a happy ending. It was just the getting there that took some work and patience.

We were going to see The X-Files trio of David Duchovny (whom I had never met), Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis. The latter two I have crossed paths with at other smaller cons, so David was the big get. I was a little nervous about him, he's so smart -- and as Mark rightfully says -- doesn't suffer fools lightly. I didn't want to be one of those irritating fans that makes him roll his eyes.

But I have to say, in all that I saw, David was warm and thoughtful with everyone who came up to him. Which was some feat, since it was hundreds of people in an hour span, with lightbulbs going off every 30 seconds in the photo op and items being thrust at him to sign every 30 seconds after that.

First was the photo op. And the VIPs lined up -- hundreds of them -- to go ahead of the regular folk like me. I was about 10th on the plebeian line, waiting patiently for my turn. At least until some ballsy woman stopped David after her picture was taken to have him sign his new book for her. The handlers tried to stop him, the photographer wasn't thrilled about the delay, everyone on line moaned and groaned. But he did it anyway.

So I might not have been in the best mood when it was my turn, especially with little time to get everything done according to David's show schedule. But that all dissipated in an instant. I think he said hello before I even could. And then I gave him some instructions -- "Cuddle ... cuddle!" And cuddle he did, that man can take direction. "Don't leave until I get your autograph," I said only half-kidding as I bid farewell.

Technology being what it is, people can pick up those photos upon exiting the booth. Well, we're supposed to anyway. I looked for mine and looked and looked and didn't find it. Then the worker pulling them out of the printer looked and looked, and then he had the guy at the computer looking for me to print it out again. He couldn't find it. Kept asking questions like "Did you have your glasses on or off?" and "Were you with someone else?" Finally it popped out one of the printers ... and it was good! I was shocked that it's one of the better ones I've taken.

But if I was cool and collected for the photo op, I probably was pretty much the opposite for the autograph portion of the program. Although Mark had staked out a place 10th on line while I waited for the picture, he was displaced for the VIP line. No matter long how he waited, we weren't going to be able to get a signature until all the VIPs went through, even if they arrived at the last second.

With everything so tightly managed -- photo op, followed by an hour of autographs, followed by the X-Files panel -- there wasn't a lot of time if things got stretched out. Since I had prepaid for the autograph and David wasn't signing after the panel, it was then or never. It started feeling like it was going to be never.

But eventually we did get to snake our way toward him. I did snare a nice 8x10 photo of David and Gillian from the table. Because I paid for an autograph and had my own item, I figured, hey, I paid for a photo, might as well get one, even if it remains unsigned.




I told David my name and as I was spelling it, he said there wasn't time for personalizing on my book because they were running late. That I understood. But it drove the rest of my prepared speech right out of my brain. I tried to say I was happy to get to meet him, but that came out in a jumbled mess that even I rolled my eyes at. He was such a gentleman, not bursting into laughter on the spot. And he did say, "Thanks for coming, Paige" as we departed.

Mark and I made our way to the Terrace Ballroom for the panel, which started late, ostensibly because David was busy wrapping up the other hundreds of autograph seekers. When he, Mitch and Bill finally took the stage, Mitch cracked everyone up by quipping that he had to pee. Which I also had to do by this time.

There wasn't a lot of new information (for me anyway) imparted during the panel, but the guys had a really nice rapport with each other that made it a lot of fun. They were each asked how they got their roles. David quickly piped in that he was having an affair with Mitch and that's how the latter became Skinner.

Bill told a story about how he originally was up for a role that had a couple of lines, but when he got his, it had no lines. But it all worked out for the best, Bill said. Except for the other guy, David added. Bill shot David a mock look of exasperation and berated him for stepping on the punchline.

Two kids were induced to ask questions by people who brought them to the event. They both showed some attitude and made everyone laugh. So much so, that David invited the second one, Max, to sit on the stage with them. And Max proceeded to make faces and react to things being said like a pro. David said someday when Max is on stage at a convention, someone will ask him how he got his start and he'll tell the story of being part of The X-Files panel.

Remember the David "doesn't suffer fools lightly" thing? Well, when a woman tried to get the trio to flesh out an answer by restating what she'd already said, David lightly chided her that her "question hadn't gotten any better." That was the kind of stuff I was looking to avoid.

And I was on one of the microphone lines soon after the session began, but alas, I wound up being too late. I was still about 10 questions away (five people in front of me on my side, five at the other mic) when the Q&A ended. I was fine with that, other than wishing that instead of the  gobbledygook that I said on the autograph line, I had told David how much his tribute to late director Kim Manners in the revival's "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster" episode meant to me.

Our last task of the day was to get Bill Davis to sign my X-Files yearbook, since I came up with that idea after I had already met and gotten his autograph elsewhere. The book's looking pretty sharp now, despite the absence of Gillian Anderson (who I have seen in person twice, both again before the yearbook project started). So I picked out the best Cigarette-Smoking Man pic I could find in the book and had him sign for me once again.

Truth is, though, it was a lot cooler to converse with him at that other convention, rather than push my book toward him and make a banal comment about his reactions to Max during the panel. The former drama teacher reiterated that actors should never work with children or animals. But more truth, we sure got a clear picture of the reasons why that's the case during the Q&A.

Only now do I realize that I should have pointed out the awesome Veronica Cartwright autograph in the book and asked him about working with her. That would have been a far better question.

What's next for The X-Files yearbook project? I truly hope it's the Lone Gunmen ... and I truly hope it's at Monster Mania or Chiller.

Night of 27 Stevies

All right, there were more than 27 Stevies if you count both those performing and those twirling around the Irving Plaza dance floor. Just nowhere near the Night of 1,000 Stevies that we expected at the 26th anniversary show. Not that the joint wasn't packed, the event was totally sold out.

I went with my Stevie Nicks sister Jenna, who I met many moons ago when "the queen of everything" conducted an in-person signing for live CD/DVD at Barnes & Noble in Union Square. We walked by that very spot while traveling to and fro the big show. Talk about symmetry!

Now Jenna had told me that I might feel uncomfortable if I didn't dress up for NOTS, since she fully expected the crowd to be mostly would-be Stevies and few mere mortals. We got the first inklings that wouldn't be the case when we arrived at Penn Station and didn't see any other Stevies. In fact, we didn't see any until we got to the venue.

But I decided to use raw materials I had around the house and do something in the spirit of Stevie, if not specifically go after a particular outfit -- Jenna looked smashing in her recreation of Stevie's "Stand Back" look. And I have to admit, I kind of was sauntering and sashaying around and feeling my inner Stevie while in costume.

The night, themed "Dark Daughters," was an array of videos, live and lip-synched performances and dance interpretations of Stevie songs, solo and with Fleetwood Mac. So we heard "Stand Back" about five or six times and "I Can't Wait" about five or six times over the course of the night. And we rocked out on them every single time.

We staked out a spot at the railing on the second floor so we could see everything and dance at the same time. It was a lot of fun to jam with the blonde wig on, especially after I acquired my tambourine. Actually the first of two tambos, because we rocked so hard with the first one that the Stevie picture fell off and disappeared. When I went for a replacement, they no longer had the variation I bought, so I wound with my second choice and we took it a little bit easier on that second one. (At least I found a picture of it -- inset below -- so I'll see it in my dreams.)

Speaking of dreams, we imbibed a bunch of them. "Dreams" was a specialty drink created for the night with vodka, club soda, a splash of raspberry and maybe something else. I can't recall, I had four of them.

I thought it was nice timing that this show was going on about two weeks after I saw Pearl Jam. In my mind, Pearl Jam represents my grounded, realistic side. Stevie and Fleetwood Mac, for me, has always been about my pie-in-the-sky, dare I say dream-like nature. But they're both me down to my toes.

There were three acts of musical performances, separated by 15-minute dreamy dance interpretations. I particularly liked the two-person grim reaper. Creepy but effective. Lots of funny moments and quips throughout the night, but the unintentional ones almost busted my gut, namely emcees attempting to throw tambourines to the audience on a couple of occasions. They didn't get very far. If you weren't standing on the general flour in five or six rows deep, it's probably safe to say you didn't get one that way.

Those who sang live did with varying degrees of success. Jenna kept breaking me up with choice comments. She likened one Stevie to Anna Nicole Smith, I never recovered from that over the length of her song. Then she said the one singing "Landslide" sounded like a Munchkin, and that's all I heard for the balance of the song. But some did stand out for me.

Best live performance: There were a lot of lovely renditions, from "Gold Dust Woman" to "Seven Wonders" and the surprise appearance of Orange Is the New Black's Lea DeLaria on "Kind of Woman." But my clear favorite was Lane Moore of It Was Romance killing it on "Silver Springs." My bar for that song is so much higher than for many other of her classics, so you can imagine how she brought down the house.

Best camp performance: Severely Mame with "Little Lies." That's a Fleetwood Mac song with "Christine McVie" on lead, but a huge spotlight stayed on the highest-haired "Stevie Nicks" I've ever seen (and that's saying something with this crew). So "Christine" got increasingly upset when the fans went wild for "Stevie" during the chorus and "Stevie" continued to curry favor with the crowd by playing to them through the rest of the song.



Least favorite performance: I'll have to go with "Crystal." A huge favorite of mine from both the Buckingham Nicks and Fleetwood Mac self-titled albums, I didn't like Bridget Barkan's take nor the unexplainable routine that went with it. I started twirling around and singing to myself so I didn't have to watch.

That reminds me, something unique about this night. Now in general at concerts, what I do is mouth words because I don't want to hear me above the people I paid to see (unless an artist calls for us to sing). And the people next to me certainly don't want to hear me above the people they paid to see. But at this show, it wasn't Stevie, it wasn't the Mac, so I pretty much felt comfortable with singing at the top of my lungs. And so did everyone else. What a blast to do that.

At one point, I was asked whether I liked the rest of Fleetwood Mac or just Stevie. And the duo that asked were surprised when I said I really did. Yeah, as a kid, Stevie was everything to me. But now that I'm older and allegedly wiser, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood and John McVie mean as much to me as she does now.

It all culminated in "Battle of a Thousand Stevies," which wasn't so much a battle as 27 Stevies on stage gyrating to "Edge of Seventeen" with 27 Stevies and the 973 of us who remained five hours later following suit from the audience. There was one Stevie behind me trying to draw me into her web with some very exacting textbook Stevie moves. She definitely practiced in the mirror before coming to the show. 

One last thing. I want to be Christine next year. Or Lindsey.

Glorious NOTS photos courtesy of The Dusty Rebel at www.thedustyrebel.com

A subway car named Desire

You know when you have an event, but you're tired and cranky and it's the last thing you want to do that particular day? I was like that Friday. But I knew I'd later regret forever if I didn't go to see Gillian Anderson in Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning A Streetcar Named Desire at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn.

Streetcar had an acclaimed run in England in 2014, and Gillian got incredible notices for her turn as Blanche DuBois. The world knows her best as Special Agent Dana Scully from The X-Files, and she showed her chops on that show, but she's also given incredible performances in classic fare such as The House of Mirth and Great Expectations as well as in the British series The Fall in the ensuing years.

So it was really something I needed to see. I got my butt in gear and trained into the city and then rode the subway to St. Ann's, scenically located under the Brooklyn Bridge. It's an intimate venue, there were only two rows on my side of the stage. At times, the actors were so close in proximity, I felt like I was part of the scene.

The set itself was a very sparse rectangle -- no walls, just a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom with a stairway just off the front door. The faucets run, the toilets mock flush. And it rotated -- for most of the show, that sucker was moving. And sometimes it works to your benefit. A number of key scenes were played right in front of me. In some others, I watched backs and just listened to the performances. That might not sound ideal on paper, but it really takes it to another level, making you experience it with other senses besides your eyes.

This interpretation of Streetcar gets a bit of a modern update in places. For example, Blanche's suitcase is a modern-day variation with wheels and music like PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love" and Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" is used liberally during fades between scenes. But it doesn't come off as jarring at any point, unless you're a purist about that kind of thing.

Now the biggest and best compliment I have for Gillian Anderson is that there is no semblance of Gillian Anderson in the performance. She looks like her, and maybe more like her than any other character I have seen her play. The Southern accent was right on, it didn't waver and it was delivered with great strength and precise intonation. Despite the pathos in most of what Blanche has to say, Gillian tapped the humor of the lines, more than occasionally giving the audience a chance to blow off some steam. When she herself laughed, it didn't sound like the giggle we associate with Gillian, it was pure Blanche. Even when she's just watching others, she transfixes the audience. And we didn't "see" Gillian until the bows. It was perfect. Flawless.

Frankly, I don't know how she does it. Actors clearly aren't like the rest of us. Seven days a week, eight performances, she stands on a rotating stage in very high heels and gets herself to the most emotional places. It's a roller-coaster ride for Blanche, and us, in the process.

Ben Foster more than holds his own opposite her as neanderthalic Stanley Kowalski. Now Ben, I know him from teen fare ranging from Freaks and Geeks to Get Over It and he's always been an affable talent to me. As Stanley, he's buff and he's a man. Just like Gillian, he completely disappeared into the role. I was very much knocked out by him.

British actress Vanessa Kirby also gave a very fine performance as Stellllllllllllla. Except for one small part in an emotional part of the denouement, all I heard was the long-suffering sister/wife's voice. I didn't know of her before, now I look forward to seeing her in other avenues. The same holds true for Corey Johnson, quite endearing but not overly sappy for the appropriate amount of time as Mitch.

Before the show, I talked with some people who had already seen it. Kate from Melbourne, Australia had journeyed all the way to New York City just to see Gillian in the run. She wanted to watch the show from another viewpoint in the audience, and she ended up sitting next to me. Two other women had seen it the previous night, but felt compelled to come back right away.

After seeing it, I knew how they felt. I wanted to take it all in from a different place in the audience. I wanted to watch it with actor friends to get their takes on it. I wanted to see the cast do what seems so impossible -- just to be at that level of emotion throughout a three-hour, 20-minute show with very little letdown. I just wanted to be drawn in all over again.

So obviously I made the right choice to get off my keister and go to St. Ann's. (Oh yeah, I also want to see other productions there too.)