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"L'arrmmeeuuuorrr. Wow, we just created a new French word." - Tony Head
Paris, 28. & 29. June 2003WireSlam, The Con Report::: written and experienced by berry[28.6. - First impressions]To call it a convention is rather an enormous exaggeration. But I should start at the beginning, the messages from Claudia on my mobile and the decision to go to Paris to check out WireSlam. Claudia went to Paris on Thursday, I had to work then and Friday so I did never intend to go to Paris. Although Anthony Head was probably going to be there. I had seen him at FedCon and that was enough, I thought. But no. Being bored at work and going over the internet site of the convention I saw that Sunday was "Buffy" day… all Buffy actors would be only there on Sunday. So I had one of those instant crazy ideas: why not take the car to Paris on Saturday night, spend the day and drive back to Germany on Monday? Crazy Paris drivers, people who speak a language I hardly understand and the whole exhaustion/no sleep theme of that idea didn't even enter my mind - not right away anyway. I talked to Claudia on the phone and she asked me why I didn't come down to Paris for the evening, we could go have a drink with the others working at the con. She sounded bored and a bit cranky - so on Saturday at noon I started off for Paris, the city of love (ha!). It took me about 5 hours to get to Paris. No traffic jams, not even coming into Paris. But Paris itself is a nightmare for sane car drivers. You have to be pretty ruthless to actually survive. I did have a roadmap with me, but being alone in that bloody car I had no chance to really have a look. I got lost. I got pretty much lost. But driving around La Defense for about an hour was quite good for my ruthlessness. I got pretty good at cutting lanes and overtaking on the right… When I finally met Claudia in front of CNIT, where the convention was taking place, I was quite exhausted and sweat was pouring down my face. Paris at this time of year is quite hot and dry and sticky, the whole town seems to stink of piss and chlorine. 
And people actually had paid a lot of money… to get almost nothing. They were ready to pack in everything for the day. There had been about 36 visitors that day, totally laughable. If it wasn't so sad, I mean. We got the car somehow to our hotel (after two u-turns and again cutting lanes...). Even got a parking space after waiting patiently for someone to leave. Laurie, Claudia, Susanne, Chrissy and I shared a tiny room - the toilet and shower were the size of a locker. Well, what the hell. Changing of clothes was required, and then we headed down to meet the Dutch and French people for dinner. We didn't get far, the Chinese place we wanted to go to was closed already, so we decided to check out the Grill right next to the Etap hotel… After a long struggle with the menu, three languages and the waiter, we had all ordered either a menu or whatever. Some drinks were free, some weren't, which led to a lot of nervous shouting when splitting the bill later. Well, it was a normal end-of-convention-day thing, the French translating for us ignorant "tourists". I always got the feeling that I should be pretty ashamed of myself not being able to speak a bit more French than what I did. Strange feeling really. Hmmm. During dinner that Julie Caitlin Brown person called several times on various mobiles at the table. I did mention that the convention was about to go down? Yes, it certainly was. Chances that Tony Head would be there the next day were now at 5000:1. Not giving away too much, the situation was as follows: the organizer had no money and the actors weren't paid yet. Means - it could well be that no actor would be there at the "convention" the next day. We made plans for a sightseeing trip to Montmartre. I really looked forward to seeing Sacre Coeur the next day… The meal took a lot longer than I had thought. They really didn't make haste. We finished our desserts at about half past 11 pm. Then Linda took out her calculator to split the bill. It was pure chaos, we were missing about 15 Euros. A fight with the really bizarre French waiter broke loose, he was really crazy, doing almost a show number, dancing and hopping around. Strange person. 
As they were closing the restaurant, we stayed right in front of it at the tables outside. We got the Tequila and the beer and started getting seriously drunk. Pieter was the only guy left, so he was watching us with a kind of morbid fascination, I guess. We had fun. We agreed to meet at about 9.30 am outside the hotel the next morning, to walk to La Defense to see if actors would be there and if not, to see how Nadege (pron.: Nadesch) would explain it to the fans… I don't know how long I slept but the Tequila and the long drive had done their part to numb me. I woke up around 8 am - as always. A long day was ahead of us … [29.6. - Don't lose your Head]We were at the "convention" place around 10 am, there was a crowd of about 90 fans waiting patiently for… yes, for what? There were no announcements, no plan, and no programme. It sucked a lot. We waited patiently for something to happen, but we were mostly joking around with the fans. I met Nicole and Vivica again, I had seen them at our hotel (yes, stuff like this happens in a small city like Paris…). 
Mostly it was quiet boredom. People were actually reading. Never had that at a convention, not really… At 11 or a bit later, I don't know, I guess I was too perplexed to look at my watch; something unexpected happened… yes, something actually HAPPENED! Anthony Head walked (or better strode) through the door. My mouth dropped to the floor. For a fleeting second I thought, 'screw Sacre Coeur'. I saw Claudia's shocked face and had to laugh. Yes, I admit, I was a bit giddy. The fans rushed after him, photo cameras in hand. We were stunned. At that point we only could guess if there would be more actors coming there later, but we were really happy to see Tony again. He had made it. Yay Tony! Well, and then? Then he was escorted to a room at the end of the hall and that was it for the moment. I don't know if they started doing pictures with him right away, I think they did. Everyone with a badge could go in right away. I don't really know why but I guess nobody had a clue who was supposed to be let in or not. Picture here, picture there. A lot of posing, you know the drill. I do have a signed photo of Tony and my humble self now - Claudia forced me. Well, a bit. Later Nadege made an appearance to tell the fans that the other actors were still at the hotel and refused to appear at the venue. She told them that it was the actors' fault, that she had done everything to get them there. Yes, of course you did, you sodding little… To sum it up: we were pretty angry. But our little group of people were the only ones who knew that it wasn't really the actors' fault… well, we started spreading the word. We went to every group of fans and always took a French person with us - to translate what really was going on. So, I think that is where the mutiny started. Every time I talked to Pascale, she told me that she was so ashamed of the French and that they were horrible. I think the only really crazy person there was Nadege and well, maybe her mother… so we decided after over an hour to take things in our hands. Claudia and Susanne from FedCon, Martin and Rafael from Utopia Con in Holland - we had the talent right there. So why not. It was nearly 2 pm at that point - Nadege went to the hotel to talk to the actors, she took two fans with her - after Tony refused to talk to the "Buffy" actors, he didn't wanted to be their hand puppet (yay again, Tony!). 
She came back without the actors of course and by then we had struck home. For Christ's sake, we had an actor (who can be amazing on stage), we had A STAGE, a whole bunch of fans. All that we did, was bring them together. Okay, what followed were 2 hours of pure Tony-delight on stage. He jumped around and bowed down to an invisible Joss Whedon and even lay down a bit. Later he just sat at the edge of the stage. He gave the fans really something for their money, so it wasn't a complete loss for them that day. Most of the fans only could speak French, so he basically started out talking French to them. I groaned inwardly and hoped that he would cut that out. After he had pretty much run out of French and the two translators were there, he switched to English again (thank god!). It all started out so innocently. But right after the first or second question he noticed that they didn't translate everything he had said. Tony then insisted that they do it properly. It was funny to watch him getting really playful. He even got them to use his intonations to carry the joke through the translation - and it worked! He had the audience going in no time. I just wish I had my MD recorder and a mike with me. It was really funny and at one point he totally spoilered the audience. He said 'even Spike will be on "Angel" - although he did explode quite thoroughly at the end of "Buffy" - or not, for all of you who haven't seen the end yet'. He then begged the girl who was about to translate, not to do that. He was a bit embarrassed about that. Had to think about the time he told us that he hates people who spoiled episodes for others - is that really so, Mr Head?!?! At the end of the Q&A he sang two songs, first "Qu'est ce que j'ai fait?" and then "Highway, Highway". I didn't know the second one, but it was beautiful. It was just he and his voice, no guitar this time. This man is amazing, that's all I say. Amazing voice. 
Right after the Q&A, Tony began signing autographs. It was a bit chaotic, Nadege told the fans they had to buy tickets for the autographs, which was total rubbish because Tony had agreed to sign whatever the fans wanted him to sign. No extra money needed. Little sodding French woman, that's the name Nadege goes by in my books as of now, I tell you! Meanwhile I had taken over the security post outside the door to the room Tony was signing in. A lot of fans came up to ask questions, and again the shameful "Parle pas francais...". Hand and feet action was required. Then all of a sudden the pictures from the shooting session with Tony came back and a lot of fans who had just been in there wanted in the other way again to let him sign it. I can tell you, not a pretty sight. Luckily everybody calmed down and Tony still kept signing and being really patient with everybody. 
I let him sign my picture with him and Claudia's copy of her book, because she was too embarrassed to go herself. His reaction was quiet bemusement and a "Claudia, you little devil." on the cover of the book. Laugh. I tried to take pictures with Claudia's camera, but it was a bit too dark. One shot came out really good because I activated the flash behind him, those were still left from the photo shoot… that was cool. Tony wrote until he had to leave for his flight back to the UK, that was around 6 pm. We applauded when he had signed the last picture. Then he grabbed his bag and was on his way. 
So that was Tony. What about the rest? Well, we all exchanged e-mails and will hopefully stay in touch. Have to exchange some pictures, a lot of group shots and I still have no pictures from the Q&A. But they will turn up bit by bit. Everyone packed their stuff, some fans came up and said thank you, and we did a quick shot of the people who saved at least part of the day. Proud much? Yes. Very proud. We walked back to the hotel, had something refreshing to drink and at 8 pm (or so), Claudia and I were on our way out of Paris. 5 hours back to Germany. We didn't hear music at all, we talked the whole time about the past days in Paris that went by in such a rush. Claudia told me some of the things I had missed on Thursday and Friday. There were a lot of unpleasant and outright insulting things said about Nadege, and a lot of pleasant things about our FedCon/Utopia con commando … and of course silly stuff about Tony. Claudia again didn't see his Q&A, so I told her the highlights that were still fresh in my memory. Claudia worried about Tony getting his flight (he did, by the way). We switched before coming into Belgium, so I didn't have to worry about the lunatics there… and then again in Aachen and I drove Claudia home to Bonn where we arrived at about 2 am. Oh, a funny thing at the end (it had to end that way): when I parked the car in front of our house at 2.30 am, I remembered that I left my key at home, because we originally wanted to come back Monday afternoon… I really had to use that bloody doorbell. There was just so much I totally forgot. But it was no problem, my dad was really gracious about it. I dropped into bed an hour later and fell asleep instantly… That was Paris. FINIS |
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Copyright © 2003 berry + ern. |
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