Chronicles 99
Part III

All photos by Ealasaid A. Haas. See below). Sorry they're not higher quality -- they were grainy to start with, and I don't have room to store high-resolution scans. But they ought to give you an idea of what things looked like...
Most are linked to larger versions.

indentIt was a great con. Two Q&A’s in particular rocked. One was a three-way, with Peter, Stan, and Val lined up on a couch, with Stan in the middle. They clowned around like you wouldn’t believe. At the end of the Q&A, they auctioned off a sword (the profits for all the stuff auctioned off during the course of the weekend went to charity).

indentWell, one of them (I think it was Peter, but I’m not sure) thought the sword might sell for more if it was run across Stan’s throat, so before we knew it, Stan was on his knees, with Peter towering over him, sword raised, reenacting the scene from "Not to Be!" The crowd went wild. But Stan didn’t want to stay on his knees forever, he wanted revenge! So, then we had Peter on his knees, with Stan holding a sword to his throat. Beautiful.

indentThe other great Q&A was all four of the Horseman. It was hysterical. The stage got set up to look like a living room, complete with coat-rack and a potted plant, and the guys kept slipping into character. It was cool. They presented a series of gifts to each other. Peter got a 5000 year diary, Marcus got an inflatable guitar, Val got an oversized birthday card which read "I couldn’t ask for a better brother" on the outside. The inside said: "Well, I could, but I think mum’s too old." Richard got a stuffed monkey, which Marcus kept threatening to eat. It was hilarious. I took a ton on photos during this part, and did up a little story-book account of the gifts here. Watch out, it's REALLY full of graphics.

indentThe whole thing was practically non-stop comedy. Those four get along so well it’s scary. During Richard’s Q&A someone had mentioned a rumor that the four of them had come up with alternate endings to the line "what is the first rule of great drama?" So, naturally, it came up again, and all four of them repeated their various versions (which included "get your frocks right" and "suck your cheeks in" from Richard, "uncap your pen," and from Val: "BILLING!").

indentSomeone asked them to introduce themselves in character. Well, Peter focused for a moment, then gave the audience a piercing look, and said in a quiet and intense voice, "I was Death." In a quiet and very intense voice that took my breath away. Val said that actions speak louder than words, and took his watch off. After holding it up, he set it on the stage, and mimed crushing it, then yelled, "I am the end of time!!" Marcus said he was called Famine because he likes to eat people… cockroaches… people’s favorite pets (with a look at Richard’s monkey), and groused that he didn’t think he should have been the one in the mad house. Richard did his like a personal ad: "Hi, I’m Silas. I’m a Virgo, I like animals…" we all roared with laughter.

indentOne particularly memorable moment was when Marcus grabbed his real guitar and played a song for us all. It was great. Val and Richard held their mikes to get his guitar and voice, and we were presented with Caspian serenading Silas. I only remember part of the chorus, but it was particularly appropriate: you mean everything to me, everything I deserve, pleasure and pain." Incredible.

indentOh, and one cute thing: at one point in the Q&A, a little girl came up to the stage, and offered the four of them jelly babies! It was adorable beyond words. Marcus seemed to take a particularly wicked joy in biting the head off his.

They also auctioned off a really cool sword for an absolutely indecent amount of money, and clowned around a ton while they did it. There are some great photos from this in the galleries.

indentThe concert Marcus’ bands gave Sunday night was wonderful. It was at a nightclub (Edwards No. 8) a few blocks from the hotel. The place was painted black, except for designs on the walls in fluorescent paints that were highlighted by the black-lights in the ceiling. First up was Chamber, an acoustic group Marcus just put together – two guitars, a violin, and a cello. The music was fantastic – sort of like rock, but with different instruments and no drums. I just found out that Chamber is cutting an album soon, and it should be available in April! Needless to say, I’m stoked.

indentAfter Chamber, M.E.L.T. came on, Marcus’ grunge/goth/rock group. They rocked! It’s a little hard to dance to their music, but it is powerful, as if they were pulling raw chaos from a roiling sea and spinning it into music. Blew me away. Needless to say, I grabbed as many of their albums as I could afford, including the one with the songs they did for the Highlander episode "The Modern Prometheus."

indentThe audience managed to pull them back for two encores – they did "Sweet Transvestite" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and "Goldeneye" respectively. They do covers well – I think I prefer their rendition of "Ziggy Played Guitar" (or whatever its title is) to Bowie’s.

indentIn all, it was an amazingly cool weekend. The autograph queues were the only not-so-good part, but they gave me a chance to chat with my Highlander pals and relax a little, so it wasn’t a big deal. Those two and a half days were as close to perfection as you can get, and I feel so lucky to have been able to attend! Major kudos and thanks to the whole committee and the guests!

THANK YOU ALL!!!

Part 2

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