So Neville Longbottom, Jason Street, and Q walk into a rib joint…
Posted By Kathleen David on September 3, 2007
No really they did or at least the actors did…. OK it wasn’t a rib joint but our hotel room but the BBQ was from Fat Matt’s Rib Shack.
Peter and I love Fat Matt’s. DragonCon has been a bad convention for us to get there because we are so gosh darn busy (but in a good way). So a couple of years ago we instituted Rib Night for Sunday before things geared up for the evening. Then we started inviting our friends and family that we wanted to talk to up for chicken and BBQ. It has become a nice way to be able to talk to people for a bit in a relaxed setting.
And we always have interesting people show up. Among them are my siblings and my sister-in-law, my friends Mike and Janet Lee, John Hudgens (who’s documentary American Scary is a really interesting look at Horror Show Hosts), Tim and Anna Zahn. We also had two of the actors who performed with the Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker animatronic puppet that has appeared both at Disneyland and Disney World. It is pretty darn amazing to watch. Along with them were a couple of other Disney folks that we have known for years. It was nice to chat with some puppeteers about puppetry and how that doggone thing works along with how they solved some of the problems. Peter invited John de Lancie to join us since they had written a book together. We invited Matthew Lewis to join us because we had such a great time together at United Fan Con. Peter met Scott Porter last year because Scott was a big fan of Peter’s work. We had great fun this past year watching him in “Friday Night Lights” Both he and Matthew are fine young actors. So everyone sat around and talked about a number of subjects and had fine BBQ.
I escorted Matthew and his friend Ellie to the Yule Ball that the YA track puts on every year. I played the pit bull and let Matthew be the nice guy so that we weren’t stopping every 20 feet. I got him to the ballroom where the function was going to be starting and of course took him to the front of the line so he could go in. Where we encountered this woman who was offended that we were “cutting” in line because she had been waiting to get in. The Chudley Cannons were guarding the door. She got right into Matthew’s face about it. Matthew was apology to the woman and trying to explain that he had to just open the ball and then he was leaving while the Cannons and I are trying to get him the heck out of there. At first I think we thought she was joking but rapidly realized that she was serious and looked like she was about to take a swing. I didn’t see the end to this story because I was with Matthew and Ellie but according to the Cannons, she looked mortified once everything had settled down and the looks she was getting from the other people in line were priceless.
Ariel and I hung around the Ball because Emerald Rose was playing and Ariel wanted to enter the costume contest. And she won “Most Angry Tonks” for a costume she thought up on the fly based on what she was wearing.
I’ll do a wrap up in a day or so. I need to compose my thoughts for the weekend first and right now my brain is putting 2 and 2 together and not coming up with 4.
I am grateful that everyone had fun last night.
Oh hëll, that woman is one of your’s and Peter’s biggest fans, my girlfriend whom I love dearly, a dedicated teacher, and the associate producer on my indie film. She honestly did not recognize Matthew, and neither did I, to tell you the truth. If it had been anyone else other than a celebrity (and we understand VIPs have precedence over the rest of us), she would have been applauded (she wasn’t just thinking of herself, she was thinking of everyone else behind her all the way to the ones wrapped around the other side of the building). Please try to look at things from the perspective of someone who spent five hours in line that day (first, for the Miss Klingon pageant and second, for the Yule Ball). DRAGON*CON really needs to limit its numbers… Chaos is an understatement when describing the con this year. I’m sorry but I would be remiss not to defend someone who I’ve personally seen go out of her way for a stranger.